There are arguments that governments should regulate the minimum cooling temperature of air conditioners, given that low air conditioner settings lead to excessive energy waste and health problems such as cooling sickness. Limiting the minimum temperature can be a practical way to protect people’s health and reduce electricity consumption.
In summer, the sun is shining outside the window, but it’s so cold in the room that you shiver. It’s the air conditioner. Someone must have left the air conditioner on a very low temperature and left it on for hours. You’re angry, but you also have a question. “Why is it that air conditioners can only be set so low if the room temperature reaches the desired temperature of 18 degrees Celsius?” Anyone who has ever experienced cold due to an air conditioner set too low has asked themselves this question.
In recent years, technological innovations have made it possible for air conditioners to drop the desired temperature to as low as 16 degrees Celsius, much lower than 18 degrees Celsius. While technological advancements are certainly welcome, the South Korean government has set a recommended indoor temperature of 20°C for winter. However, when it comes to winter, people complain that even 20℃ is too cold. It’s ironic that some people prefer lower indoor temperatures in summer than in winter. It’s also quite surprising that some people set their air conditioners below 20 degrees Celsius. At a time of summer power crises and the need to reduce carbon emissions, an air conditioner that can lower the room temperature to 18 degrees Celsius is only doing more harm than good. I think we need to regulate the temperature of air conditioners nationally and bring it up to the recommended room temperature or close to it.
What are the benefits of regulating the temperature of air conditioners? First, it would prevent energy waste due to excessive cooling. Nationwide, raising air conditioning temperatures by just one degree Celsius saves about 500,000 kilowatts of energy. That’s a lot of energy, equivalent to the energy produced by a single thermal power plant. With electricity demand spiking due to summer cooling, the government is warning that power supply could become unstable. Reducing the use of air conditioning alone can go a long way toward combating the energy crisis and reducing carbon emissions.
The government is still recommending that schools, government offices, large supermarkets, stores, etc. adhere to appropriate cooling temperatures during times of power crises, such as during heat waves. However, it’s not possible for manpower to check every single location to ensure that the cooling temperature is met. Even if it were possible, targets could get around this by raising the temperature only while the enforcement is in place. In fact, outside of public buildings and large businesses that strictly follow government guidelines, it’s hard to find a place that’s in compliance with cooling temperatures. Even when they are caught, the penalties for violating the regulations are weak, often resulting in a warning letter. The current policy is not only weak, but it also has gaping holes because it doesn’t cover places with high cooling demand, such as homes and offices.
Therefore, limiting the minimum temperature of the air conditioner itself is very effective. Compared to existing policies that require voluntary participation and enforcement personnel, limiting the minimum temperature that can be set by the appliance itself is much more enforceable. If the minimum temperature of air conditioners were limited to 2-3 degrees Celsius below the recommended summer cooling temperature of 26 degrees Celsius, the situation would be greatly improved.
Second, raising the minimum temperature of air conditioners can also contribute to public health by reducing the incidence of air conditioning sickness. First, to briefly explain what air conditioning sickness is, it occurs when the temperature difference between indoors and outdoors is greater than 5-8℃. The human body is unable to adapt, resulting in symptoms such as mild colds, body aches, and boredom. The symptoms may be mild and you may not think much of it, but for the elderly and children, it can lead to pneumonia, and in severe cases, death. Women are also at risk for infertility. What’s more, it’s a common enough occurrence that surveys show that more than half of office workers have experienced it.
It’s most common in environments where low temperatures are forced upon us, not intentionally set. I myself have been to the hospital with a case of cold sickness when I was in high school. The air conditioner was too cold and I tried to raise the temperature, but it was centrally controlled and impossible. I tried to switch seats with a friend who felt hot, but there were no other students, and I ended up going to the hospital in the middle of the summer due to air conditioning sickness. This situation is not unique to me. Many office workers have suffered from air conditioning sickness, but they were often unable to control the temperature themselves.
The situation is no different for self-employed people. In one survey, 49.5% of self-employed people said that even if the government advised them to set their air conditioning to the right temperature, they wouldn’t do it if they were left to their own devices. This is because customers will seek out cooler establishments. However, self-employed people have to stay in their stores all day long, so they have no choice but to put up with it so they don’t lose out to the competition while suffering from cold sickness. Another problem is the “inertia effect” of air conditioning. This is when the person who turns on the air conditioner inadvertently sets it to the lowest temperature, and it stays there. Many people don’t pay much attention to the temperature and end up getting air conditioning sickness after staying for long periods of time, so limiting the minimum cooling temperature to something close to the recommended temperature will greatly reduce this problem.
