The Indian government has imposed a default temperature setting of 24 C on room air conditioners with effect from January 1.
The new rule covers all brands and types of star-labelled room air conditioners – multi-stage capacity air conditioners, unitary air conditioners and split air conditioners – rated from one star to five star, based on their relative energy efficiencies up to a rated cooling capacity of 10,465W. It applies to all units manufactured, commercially purchased or sold in India.
The default temperature follows the introduction of new energy performance standards introduced in October 2019. These set Indian Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratios (ISEER) from 3.3 to 5 for split and 2.7 to 3.5 for window air conditioners.