The Central Government of India is keen to conserve the environment and encourage the conservation of energy. In a bid for that to happen, it has recently launched a ‘super-efficient’ AC that has been targeted at the urban households of India.
This product is designed by Energy Efficiency Services, a state-owned and joint venture between 4 state-operated enterprises. They are National Thermal Power Corporation, Power Finance Corp, Power Grid Corporation of India and Rural Electrification Corp.
Green AC in India – A quick guide
Energy Efficiency Services, which is known as EESL, has started the sales of the AC on its web portal in July 2019. It is also behind the incorporation of a country-wide plan to support the usage of light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs. It is also behind leading the country’s motivated drive towards electric vehicles. You should know that it has pumped in 1.9 billion rupees in the green AC project that will cut emissions. The Asian Development Bank partially finances the green AC project.
The green AC is being manufactured by AC industry leader in India, Voltas, which is a Tata Group Company. The retail cost of this green AC is around Rs.41,300. EESL also had two bidders in the manufacturing of green AC such as Daikin and Godrej. But they could not make the cut as their prices were too high.
The company is hoping to replicate its success of its National LED Program that was launched in 2015. EESL was able to get bulk purchasing orders from leading manufacturers such as Crompton Greaves and Philips. The National LED Program helped EESL to sell LED units starting at Rs.70 instead of Rs.300-400 within 1 year.
Coming back to the green AC unit project of the EESL, the entity says that the cost of Voltas air conditioner is at least 30% lesser than models with 5 Star Rating. What is a Star Rating in India? You may have been baffled by different Star Ratings given to different home appliances in the range of 1 to 5 Stars and may want to know what it means. In India, household appliances are provided grades that range on a scale of 1 to 5, and it is accorded as per their energy efficiency.
The EESL and Voltas manufactured Green AC has a rating of 5.4, and it is higher than that of the best product available in India within a range of 4 to 5.
How will green ACs cut emissions and help save electricity?
ACs are typically power suckers and account for 50-60% of the total power bill in a household. The Green AC will work on 960 W power, which is way less than 1155 W used by a 4-5 Star Rating air conditioner.
EESL believes that by buying the Voltas green AC, customers will be able to save 300 units of power or roughly Rs.2,400 per year. EESL is also planning to sell around 2 lakh units of green AC compared to its target of 50,000 units by December 2019. The energy-efficient ACs will soon be available pan India within 1 year which can be bought from Sargam electronics or other brands like stores like croma, reliance digital, vijay sale and other more.
EESL also expects to start a new bidding procedure for the next round of the production of ever more energy-efficient green AC. In the next round, it hopes to engage industrial establishments, utilities for exploring opportunities for project scaling and demand aggregation.
Many households in India don’t invest in an AC fearing high energy bill per month despite having the affordability to buy one.
The availability of green air conditioners all over India at a lower price with increased power efficiency will now help more households to buy an AC without issues.
