Room air conditioners to now have default temperature of 24 degree Celsius: BEE

The Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) on Monday said all room air conditioners should have a default temperature of 24 degrees Celsius.

This means that when the room air conditioner is switched on, it will start at 24 degree Celsius.

The central government in consultation with BEE had notified new energy performance standards for room air conditioners (RACs) on October 30, 2019, according to a statement by the power ministry.

According to the notification, all brands and types of star-labelled RACs, which are rated from one star to five stars based on their energy efficiencies and manufactured, commercially purchased or sold in India, shall ensure default setting of temperature in the room air conditioners at 24 degrees Celsius, with effect from January 1, 2020.

The new norms provide that the Indian Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio (ISEER) as per the new standards will range from 3.30 to 5 for split and 2.70 to 3.50 for window air conditioners.

However, these performance standards, except default temperature of 24 degrees Celsius, will be applicable from January 1, 2021, onwards.

The BEE launched a voluntary star-labelling programme for fixed-speed RACs in 2006 and this programme became mandatory on January 12, 2009.

Thereafter, in 2015, a voluntary star-labelling programme for inverter RACs was also started, which was further made mandatory with effect from January 1, 2018.

The BEE star-labelling programme for RACs now covers both fixed and inverter RAC up to a cooling capacity of 10,465 watts (2.97 tonne of refrigeration).

Continual enhancement in performance levels has resulted in substantial energy-efficiency improvement of about 43 per cent in the minimum energy performance standards for split units, which are the most-popular RACs sold in the market.

The ISEER is the energy performance index used for RACs and its assessment is based on the bin hours defined in ISO 16358.

The star-labelling programme for RACs has led to saving of an estimated 4.6 billion units of energy in 2017-18 and a cumulative energy saving of 46 billion units translating to a reduction of 38 million tonnes of carbon emission.

The BEE is a statutory body under the Ministry of Power, Government of India. It develops policies and strategies with the objective of reducing the energy intensity of the Indian economy.