‘Energy Efficiency is Good Investment’

There is simply no day you can live out without energy of some form. And the more intense forms of use are the worrisome ones. There are serious concerns across the world on how ACs heat up the rest of the city while it cools your house or office. Here is a primer on smart use.
Buildings use up a lot of energy—to cool, heat and light—and are often described as concrete monsters. Would you agree?
Yes, that’s why builders and consumers are bound by law to follow energy efficiency guidelines. In addition to energy-efficient design, a lot depends on selection of equipment that’s far more efficient than what’s required by law.
Wouldn’t energy-efficient equipment add substantially to cost?
Looking at history, I would say that products have got more efficient and the cost hasn’t gone up. There are many different products in a range of energy efficiency and you can pick whatever makes good sense for you.
Even if you have to pay a little more initially, what you’ll get in return is more efficiency over a longer period of time. That translates to reduced bills and cleaner air. So we need to look at energy efficiency as a good investment.
An investment in an energy-efficient piece of equipment like an air-conditioner or lighting system can give you a 30-50 per cent rate of return per year. The Godrej-CII building in Hyderabad, the ITC office block in Delhi, or T-Zed Homes in Bangalore are excellent examples of such efficiency and long-term saving for the dweller.
What else can cooling systems run on, besides electricity?
Some products can run on waste heat, some on natural gas and others on electricity. The most way of cooling today is with electricity.
It’s the most efficient way but we do have other options. For example, the Absorption Chiller. It runs on heat that would otherwise be wasted.
How sensitive are people of the need to go in for energy efficiency?
This trend is probably because of increasing energy prices. Today, it’s far easier to convince a property owner that he should invest in energy-efficient products than it was 10 years ago.
It makes good business sense. Commercial buildings use up 40-50 per cent of all electricity produced in the country. The main energy guzzler is air-conditioning. Electricity comes from burning fossil fuels—a non–renewable resource. Over 85 per cent of power in India is generated by coal-fired thermal plants which burn precious fossil based fuel, and lay waste huge tracts of forest lands.