What elements affect the electricity consumption of an AC?
Another scorcher of a summer is upon us, and most of us are reaching for our AC remotes to keep cool. Electricity bills tend to triple and quadruple as summers push people to escalate AC use. And with a lot of family members still working or studying from home, this means correspondingly higher electricity bills.
Before buying an AC for your home understand how exactly an AC’s use affects your electricity bill? Looking to find ways to reduce your electricity consumption for not just the sake of your bill, but also to minimize your carbon footprint? Here are a handful of insider tips on what exactly makes an AC consume more electricity.
1. Star-rating and ISEER rating
This is one way to ensure a lower electricity consumption before you even buy an AC. All you need to do is look for a high BEE star rating and ISEER rating. The BEE rating appears as a sticker on your air-conditioner and will be available alongside the AC price if you are buying online. All brands will have a variety of ACs with differing star ratings. For example, if you have decided that you specifically buy a Blue Star AC, you simply need to insist on an AC with five-star BEE rating.
You might notice that the AC price is substantially higher for models with four star and five star ratings. However, this is a choice that the buyer has to make -- will they choose a lower upfront AC price or lower electricity bills over the next few years?
2. Head count
Ever notice that when a whole team gets up and steps into the conference room for a meeting, the office suddenly seems much, much cooler? That’s right, the number of people present in a room affects how much the AC has to work in order to keep the room cool. Consequently, a higher number of people in a given room means that the AC is consuming more power.
3. Clutter
Every object in the room possesses some heat; to put it scientifically, every solid object is a conductor of heat. That means that every t-shirt, hairbrush, pair of shoes, necklace, everything you have in the room adds to the pressure on your air-conditioner. You can get the best 5 star Blue Star AC in the market, and still get high electricity bills if your room is cluttered. Clean up your clutter to reduce your electricity consumption.
4. Colour
You are always advised to wear white and other pastels in summer, and to avoid black and dark coloured clothes when you are trying to keep cool. That logic also applies to when your AC is trying to cool your room. A room with red walls is going to absorb more heat than a room with white walls, and will therefore be a bigger task for your AC. Dark curtains and dark furnishings work similarly; especially in the summer, opt for light coloured curtains. You might not be able to re-jig paint and sofa colours by the season, but you can change your bed sheets and curtains to whites and pastels.
5. Lights, gadgets and appliances
A room that is very heavily lit is going to also be very hot. LED lights do not significantly affect heat emission, but they do still cause a room to heat up. In addition, you already know how your phone heats up after heavy use, and how your laptop heats up several times in a day when you’re working on it. All of this translates to higher electricity consumption by an air-conditioner that is having to work extra-hard to keep a room cool.
Electricity consumption is especially high in ACs that cool studio apartments, which might have refrigerators, microwaves, washing machines, and kettles all operating within the same room. Keep these tips in mind in the coming summer. Clean up your clutter and change your linen for starters. Of course, all these tips are over and above choosing the right AC for your room size.
Get your home a new 5 star AC for the coming summer, and don’t be flustered by the AC price. Instead, just use your Bajaj Finserv EMI Network Card to pay for your AC in No Cost EMIs. You can really make the purchase light on your pocket by choosing to pay in up to 24 monthly instalments. Moreover, you can get ACs from all the top brands by shopping on the Bajaj Finserv EMI Store, while availing exciting offers and discounts on the AC units.
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