Temperature standardization: How much electricity does an AC use

On Tuesday, Power Minister Manohar Lal Khattar said the government is working on a framework to standardise the default temperatures of air conditioners, including those in automobiles, in the range of 20 to 28 degrees Celsius.

The industry will have to go for some minor modifications in the designs and settings of the remote control and its firmware (software embedded into hardware devices) for its implementation and needs up to six months for its implementation.

The air-conditioning industry will comply with the new temperature standardisation announced by the government within a couple of months, including resetting its inventory, without passing any additional costs to consumers.

Leading room-air conditioner (RAC) makers such as Voltas, LG Electronics, Blue Star and Haier have welcomed the move and said the move will not only help the industry to grow sustainably by saving energy, but also optimise energy consumption, reduce grid load in peak summers and also extend the lifespan of the units.

Here we take a look at how much energy an AC consumes:

The amount of energy an air conditioner will consume depends on its size and type.

A central AC typically consumes 3000 and 3500 watts per hour.

A 1-ton window AC might consume around 1 kWh per hour.

A 1.5-tonne split AC will consume around 1200-1500 watts per hour.

An inverter AC, which is more energy efficient, will consume around 800 watts per hour.

The energy consumption also depends on usage patterns. Lowering the temperature does make the AC consume more energy since it has to work harder.

The optimal temperature for an AC is 24 to 27 degree-Celsius. Every degree lower than that will increase energy consumption by around 6 per cent.

The Indian room air-conditioner market is one of the fastest growing markets globally, in which over 12 to 15 companies compete. The market is estimated to be around 15 million units.

With PTI inputs