Energy Efficiency

COVID-19: As lockdown heats up, my AC cools down

Here is the story of my struggle with ACs during this lockdown  

 
By Anurag Verma
Published: Friday 17 April 2020

The temperature shot up to 40 degrees Celsius this week in Delhi, at a time when people holed up inside their homes, because of the nationwide lockdown to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

Several of my friends felt the heat dig deeper into their skin at the beginning of the week itself.

I was in denial because I wanted to delay the use of my air-conditioner (AC), partly to gain environmental credentials and partly to save up on my electricity bill.

But here I am, writing this with my AC blowing cool air behind me, drying up the remnants of my sweat, accumulated during a heavy cooking session (I am also in the running for Master-chef India’s coronavirus edition, like most non-essential middle-to-upper class Indians).

Here is the story of my struggle with ACs during this lockdown.

AC is a non-essential service

I do not own an AC. I had plans to rent one for the summer, like most young professionals living in rented apartments across Delhi.

But the lockdown made this a difficult ordeal since ACs are not essential goods nor do they provide essential services. In short, buying, installing or servicing ACs are not explicitly permitted during the lockdown.

Most ACs need to be serviced at the beginning of the season, as internal wear and tear is significant in India. This includes refilling the AC’s refrigerant and cleaning of filters, among others. Many cities, including Delhi, allow online startups like Urban Clap Technologies India Pvt Ltd, that provide essential house-cleaning services and repairs — including AC repair services.

The informal side of these services, however — including AC rental and servicing — remains locked up. Official guidelines issued after the lockdown was extended, stipulate relaxation for services provided by self-employed electricians, repairmen, plumbers, motor-mechanics and carpenters in green zones (districts that are free of COVID-19) after 20 April.

All of Delhi’s districts lie in the red zone, which means a relaxation cannot be expected. It seems imminent that even the rich in Delhi may have to literally sweat out the lockdown.

Friendly neighborhood AC-man to the rescue

After multiple failed attempts, I found someone who supplied ACs for rent within my locality and agreed to do the dirty work for me.

This was possible for me as short commutes to local markets are permitted within non-containment zones. Authorities expect people to observe social distancing while undertaking such endeavors.

The owner of the AC rental service lamented that his business was hit very badly.

“The procurement of refrigerant gases is almost impossible due to restrictions imposed. We are making do with the stock we have, but our services have been confined to a 500-metre radius,” he said.

My AC was installed, nevertheless, keeping lockdown rules and proper social-distancing protocols in mind.

Not everybody, however, is as lucky as me.

“I cannot find anybody to service my AC. Since I have a sewage drain flowing nearby, the emission of ammonia from it erodes up the copper piping in the AC and leads to the leakage of the refrigerant, which needs regular refill,” said a colleague of mine.

He is just one of many who find it difficult to get their AC serviced or get one installed.

A cool room pinches harder

My AC usage was usually limited to nighttime, as my daytime cooling needs were met at office during the weekdays and at malls and cafes on weekends. Given community cooling — more efficient and not directly paid for by me — is out of bounds this summer, I have to beat the heat during the day with my newly rented AC.   

My new lockdown buddy is a 1.5-tonne window AC machine manufactured by LG Electronics India Pvt Ltd and is around four years old.

It is a three-star AC, according to the 2017 energy rating label. In its short life, it has cooled embassies and homes of expats. It now serves me well enough, albeit at a lower price but a higher cost.

I’ll break it down.

My AC should consume about 1.75 units of electricity per hour of operation if it was true to its star rating.

It is, however, more realistic to assume a 25 per cent consumption increase, due to performance decline from age and multiple relocations.

This works out to be 2.2 units per hour. I use it for four hours in the night, which adds up to 264 units a month. One needs to pay an unsubsidised electricity tariff if one crosses the 200 unit mark in a month in Delhi.

Now that I will be running my AC while working from home as well (for approximately eight hours a day), an additional 528 units would be added in a month.

A grand total of 792 units of electricity is utilised to run my AC for a month while working from home. This translates to a Rs 5,544 electricity bill (based on Delhi’s unsubsidised domestic electricity rate: Rs 7 per unit).

This is in addition to my regular electricity bill.

Sunny side up

Cooling is a social and economic inequity issue that has a far-reaching impact on human health and climate change.

India made a National Cooling Action Plan in 2019 to address this very problem. But it never accounted for a pandemic shifting the cooling load from commercial buildings to homes.

Most of the homes in Delhi and the rest of urban India are no longer designed to remain cool without an AC.

These solar ovens masquerade as buildings and are ripe to test thermal limits, with domestic ACs bound to test the country’s energy balance.

I hope this heat trap helps us revisit building designs and make us find ways to keep cool without being dependent on ACs.

This can be a good change for the world.

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