Use of Electrical air conditioning – Is it really necessary, if our construction takes into account natural lighting and ventilation?

We all know that Air Conditioning is a current killer. I am sure there are estimates of how much power is needed JUST TO RUN ACs. What we should be asking is now how many more power stations are required to cope with the increasing demand for ACs, but what we as a nation, MUST do to reduce, and in fact negate any demand for this current killer.

It is all down to marketing. Having an AC in a CLOSED room, confers status! It is all about how others perceive you, not whether you deserve AC, or if your productivity level increases because your room has air conditioning. In the Private Sector, every employer looks at his costs, and if the benefit as he measures it exceeds cost, then he will install air conditioning. THERE IS NO SUCH EVALUATION in the public sector, and so those the use of AC is not restricted, and worse, as the bills are paid, no one make sufficient effort to avoid wastage, minimize usage, reduce wastage, by making sure there is no loss of cooling etc.

One only has to go into an office of a senior Govt. servant to see how sometimes with the air conditioning at its coolest, some window here or there is open for some fresh air! It only happens in Sri Lanka.

One now needs to look at all newly built Government Offices. How energy efficient are they? Are new energy saving methods adopted? I can assure you when ANY private building is currently constructed, the owner insists on energy efficiency and now even supplementary solar panels are installed in obvious places to reduce the dependence on the Grid.

There is a failure amongst our planners, and Public Servants to realize how expensive it is and how much the people of the Country sacrifice their personal satisfaction to maintain such a large bureaucracy of Public Servants. This simple factor that the rest of the Country has been pauperized for the satisfaction of the Public Sector is NOT A COMMON ATTITUDE of the Public Sector employee.

It is incumbent upon the Government to publicize these points, beginning with the treachery that is the wastage of energy, as it is a direct cost of the people of Sri Lanka who are paying for it. If people are conscious of this fact, I am sure that energy wastage would be minimized. At a stroke the demand for power during the day would fall by the equivalent of a 100MW power station. We advertise air conditioners with full page ads. Where is the exhortation to reduce wastage? 

Don't say that it is a case of sour grapes! I am one who does not have electricity in my home in Minneriya see www.ratmale.blogspot.com