There are multiple reasons to minimize the use of air-conditioning. The one which is most central in this blog is, of course, sustainability. We all know that air-conditioning uses a lot of energy. According to Nilesh Jadhav, a researcher at NTU, air-conditioning raises your electicity bill by approximately fifteen percent with every extra degree of cooling. This time, money appears to be secondary on people’s mind, as the use of air-conditioning is very widespread, despite the costs. As relatively high costs imply relatively high energy use, this number shows that air-conditioning less significantly reduces energy use. We can save a lot of energy by minimizing the use of air-conditioning!

Banning air-conditioners in Singapore is not an option because we need to cool down sometimes. Living in Singapore is just not possible without air-conditioning, but minimalizing could be an option.  The question that remains is, what is the best temperature to live in? According to research, the best temperature to live and work in is between 22,5 and 25,5 degrees. This might sound too warm, but the first malls, hotels and retailers on Orchard Road already started setting their air-conditioning on this temperature already a few years ago. Have you ever heard people complaining about the temperature there?

This last fact shows that the people in Singapore and also the Singaporean government are already trying to reduce the use of air-conditioning. The same goes for NTU (Nanyang Technological University Singapore), the university where I am currently studying. This university is already aware that we should not put on the air-conditioning when it is not needed. Hall residents have to pay for their use of air-conditioning and there are regulations and tips about how to minimize the use of air-conditioning on campus. However, daily life shows that these small regulations are not always enough. When entering the Hive you can see the vapor on the windows, even when the rooms are not occupied. The university wants rooms not to be air-conditioned when they are not occupied, but that doe not actually happen yet.

The Singaporean government started to retrofit their air-conditioners in five governmental buildings, what saved them 9.000.000 Singapore Dollars! This shows how much money and energy can be saved if air-conditioners would work more efficient. However, this is the only aspect of the air-conditioning problem that is mentioned in the Sustainable Singaporean Blueprint 2015. This shows that even though Singaporeans are aware of the possible gains of reducing air-conditioning usage, they take little action yet. However, I do think that it is possible to systematically reduce the use of air-conditioning. It is very hard to change the things you are used to in daily life, but the Sustainable Singaporean Blueprint plan shows that Singapore has made good progress to become more sustainable. I have faith that this is also possible with the use of air-conditioning.