According to the findings of a recent poll conducted by Daikin, there are significant disparities between people’s perspectives about air conditioning and their actual use of it in cities all over the globe.
The purpose of the study was to investigate the attitudes and cultures of each nation with respect to air conditioners, as well as the ways in which people use air conditioners, and to investigate the contrasts and similarities that exist across the cities. The survey received answers from 1,200 individuals who lived in 12 different cities.
The city with the highest air conditioner setting was discovered to be Tokyo, with an average of 26.2 degrees Celsius. The city with the lowest air conditioner setting was Lagos, Nigeria, with an average of 21.9 degrees Celsius. Subsequently, the average temperatures in São Paulo (Brazil) were recorded at 22.2°C, while New York (United States) recorded 22.4°C.
With an average daily use duration of 17.2 hours, the city of Houston, in the United States of America, was the location where people used their air conditioners the most. On top of that, during the hot weather, almost forty percent of the people living in Houston utilized their air conditioners around the clock. Following closely after was Riyadh, which is located in Saudi Arabia, with 14.9 hours, and New York, which had 12.6 hours.
At a high of 20.6 degrees Celsius, the temperature differential between the air conditioner’s programmed setting and the maximum ambient temperature was the greatest in Riyadh.
A total of eleven out of the twelve cities surveyed said that energy efficiency was the most essential selling element for air conditioners. While this was going on, it was discovered that New Yorkers were the most worried about the environmental burden.
The average temperatures that were recorded in the cities of Tokyo, Bangkok (Thailand), and Shanghai (China) were higher than those recorded in other cities (Tokyo; 26.2 degrees Celsius, Bangkok; 25.1 degrees Celsius, Shanghai; 25.0 degrees Celsius). The company Daikin argues that this might be due to the fact that a large number of individuals in Asian nations are either sensitive to cold or take care not to set the temperature too low in order to save air conditioning.
A recommendation made by the government of Japan is that air conditioners be adjusted at a room temperature of 28 degrees Celsius in order to promote energy saving. It has been suggested by Daikin that this might be the reason for Tokyo’s very high average temperature. More than ninety percent of individuals in Tokyo are worried about their power costs when they use air conditioners, making Tokyo the city with the greatest percentage of people who are concerned about this issue among the twelve cities. Additionally, the proportion of individuals in Tokyo who set the thermostat higher while cooling or lower when heating in order to conserve energy was the highest among the 12 cities, coming in at 71%. This was the case throughout the cooling season.
When it came to selecting an air conditioner, energy efficiency was a significant consideration in eleven out of the twelve cities. In particular, this was seen in the cities of Bangkok and Istanbul. Shanghai was the only city in which this was not the case. In Shanghai, having enough cooling and heating was the most critical consideration, with energy efficiency coming in second place.
The primary motivation for selecting an energy-efficient air conditioner was not environmental concerns; rather, it was the reduction of monthly power expenses that was the primary cause across all twelve cities.
More than seventy percent of individuals in fifty percent of the cities believe that they need air conditioning more strongly today than they did ten years ago.
