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  Straits Times Forum 18 Apr 07
Air-conditioning at 25 degrees Celsius the way to go
Letter from William Loh Peng Cheong

I REFER to the report on 'Rich nations could be more active' by Neo Hui Min (ST April 6) and the report 'Greenhouse gas from each home up by 25%' (ST, Oct 18, 2006) by Jessica Lim.

According to the Economist Intelligence Unit, Singapore is ranked 15th in the world for largest electricity consumption (kwhr per head) in 2004, and has jumped to 11th position in the world this year (Economist Pocket World in Figures 2007).

Much of the energy consumption in Singapore is attributed to air-conditioning.

When the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Change)'s 21-page summary for policy makers was published on April 6, the stern warning given by Mr Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, sent a wake-up call for all nations in the world and the need to address this problem urgently while we still have a chance.

Earlier in my letters to the Forum, I suggested to the Government that we need to implement a national energy conservation campaign to raise the present air-conditioning ambient temperature from 22 degrees to 25 degrees Celsius.

At present, the Energy Market Authority only encourages us to raise the temperature of our air-conditioning from 22 degrees to 25 degrees Celsius. When we say 'encourage', it means that we have a choice not to do it. But when the Government says now it is 'mandatory', then we have to do it, we don't have a choice.

Perhaps, our Government should implement an 'energy conservation month' for Singapore whereby all businesses and all residents are mandated by law to raise the temperature of the ambient air-conditioning temperature to 25 degrees Celsius.

I strongly believe that most people in Singapore would do it for the sake of our Planet Earth.

If every household, vehicle and building in Singapore increase the ambient air-conditioning temperature by 3 degrees Celsius from 22 degrees Celsius, we are effectively talking about a saving of at least 9 per cent on the cooling bill for Singapore.

This is done without incurring extra investment cost in terms of purchasing energy-efficient equipment.

Singapore Power could monitor the energy usage and the reduction in carbon dioxide (greenhouse gas) emissions for that month and publish the results in the local newspapers for all to see and this would become the Best Practice in the world for other nations to follow.
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