Yesterday I went to see the film Chuskit which was being screened as part of IFFI in Panjim, in an inflatable theatre. It is a film about a girl with a disability in a village in Ladakh and how her family, friends and then her entire village come together to help her go to school and get on with her life. More about the film later. This piece is about another topic.
The inflatable theatre seats about a 100 people and there were several air-conditioners inside to ensure air circulation and cooling. They were set at 160 C and when I walked in, it felt cold. Outside, it was probably about 280C. There were very few people in the audience, probably about 10, and so it did not become any warmer. At one point, I asked the attendant to please increase the temperature a bit and he raised it to 210C. It still felt cold.
I was reminded again of my trip to Japan in September, 2011. My flight brought me to Tokyo via Changi Airport, Singapore. Changi is my favourite airport - if I were given a corner somewhere to live in it, I would be very happy. However, it is cold inside. I am guessing it is about 180C inside. So it was a pleasure to land in Tokyo and find the airport comfortable. Being from Madras, my ambient temperature tends to be higher. And in the taxi to the hotel, I noticed the temperature on the dashboard and I asked the driver why it was at 260C. I got the gist of the response from him, but had to wait for the full story from my host the next day.
A tsunami had affected the working of their nuclear power plant at Fukushima in March 2011. So as a country, they decided to conserve energy. One of the measures that they agreed on was to keep all air-conditioning at public places at 260C. It is a shade uncomfortable for most people, but really, the human body adapts quite fast. Nationally they had a huge saving in energy. And an exponential sale in the growth of men’s shirts!
Earlier, with the temperature being maintained at 180C in offices and public spaces, office-going men wore jackets to keep warm. Now that they no longer needed the jackets, they had to make sure their shirts were in good condition. Apparently they had been getting away with old, faded and sometimes torn shirts under their jackets. Hence the rush to buy new shirts!
I don’t understand the need to keep the temperature so low that you are forced to cover up or use a blanket at night. Doesn’t it make more sense to keep it at an ambient 24 to 270C, depending on your comfort level and wear lighter clothes or bed linen? When I use an AC, I keep the temperature at 250C. Since these are not perfect machines, I do need to cover myself up, but with a thin cotton sheet. And I wake up feeling refreshed.
I find most spaces that have air-conditioning in India too cold - theatres, airports, hotels and meeting rooms. They should try to increase the temperature by just 10C and see the difference in energy consumption. If they do it over a few months, they could reach 24 or even Japan’s 260C without too much complaint. I certainly will look forward to that!
28/Nov/2018
