Indian government wants you to follow this easy ‘hack’ to reduce AC bills: What is it and why does it work

AC bill

The temperature has started reaching a whopping 40 degrees during the day, and around remains mostly unchanged even at night. That requires our air conditioners to run continuously and take a bit toll on our overall electricity bill, which during the summers increases multiple times just because of air conditioners. To curb that and reduce the overall electricity bill, the Indian government is urging citizens to adopt a simple change to reduce electricity bills and conserve energy: Raise the air-conditioner temperature setting.

Indian government wants to follow this ‘hack’

According to the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), increasing the AC setting by just 1°C can lead to substantial power savings—an approach being promoted as a cost-effective and climate-conscious solution.

Let’s look at it from a bigger picture:

BEE notes that while most ACs are commonly set at 20–21°C, the ideal comfort range for indoor cooling is 24–25°C. Raising the setting from 20°C to 24°C could cut electricity consumption by up to 24%, helping households reduce both usage and monthly bills. The agency adds that even a 1°C adjustment saves approximately 6% in electricity.

Why this happens

Well, if you look from a modern AC's perspective, running ACs at relatively higher temperatures allows the AC to attain that temperature relatively fast and shut down the compressor to save on the electricity bill. And, it only turns it back when the tempreture starts rising again and keeps following that. 

So, if you ran your AC, let’s say for 8 hours and set the temperature to 26 degrees, then it is possible that your AC’s compressor was turned on only for 5 hours or even less, if you’ve closed all your doors and windows properly.

Not only that, 

Beyond individual benefits, the broader impact of this practice could be significant. BEE estimates that if just 50% of AC users in India follow the recommendation, the country could save 10 billion units of electricity annually. This would translate into financial savings of around Rs 5,000 crore and would reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 8.2 million tonnes per year.

User control and factory settings

The Bureau also pointed out that the factory default settings on ACs can be manually adjusted by users. Encouraging people to make these changes could contribute meaningfully to both household energy efficiency and national sustainability goals.