Kolkata has ‘greenest’ AC usage among 7 metros, finds study
Times of India | 16 September 2025The survey places Kolkata at a unique crossroads of energy efficiency and climate risk.
The survey covered 3,100 households in seven cities —Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Ahmedabad, Pune, and Jaipur — using stratified random sampling across income groups and climate zones. It examined AC ownership, usage, servicing, refrigerant leakage, costs, disposal practices, and climate awareness. The survey aims at guiding a national Lifecycle Refrigerant Management (LRM) roadmap to curb greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from cooling appliances.
Kolkata emerged as an outlier in several key parameters. While the city shows the highest adoption of energy-efficient 5-star rated units (42% versus the national 28%), it also recorded the lowest awareness of climate-friendly low-GWP refrigerants, with 69% of households unaware — the worst among all cities surveyed.
Single-unit households dominate in Kolkata; 83% of AC-owning households have just one unit, close to the national trend of 87%.
Higher thermostat settings are common, with 79% keeping ACs at 23°C or above, far higher than the national average of 67%. Daily usage averages 4 hours, slightly above the national 3.9 hours. Service woes differ from the norm; 60% of complaints here are about unresolved problems, while nationally, 68% are about unnecessary refrigerant refilling.
Lower refill costs but high frequency are noted; the average refill cost is Rs 1,600, lower than the national Rs 2,200, yet 42% of units need refilling annually — mirroring the national 41%.
Nationally, iFOREST, an independent non-profit research and innovation organisation working on pressing environment-development challenges in India, estimates that 40% of ACs are refilled every year, even though, ideally, they should need refilling only once in five years. This resulted in Rs 7,000 crore in annual consumer losses and the release of 52 million tonnes CO₂-equivalent (MtCO₂e) in 2024 alone. Total AC-related emissions in India have reached 156 MtCO₂e — equal to emissions from all passenger vehicles — and are projected to double by 2035.
"These refrigerants are hundreds of times more potent than carbon dioxide. Without strong regulations, ACs will become India's biggest source of household greenhouse emissions by 2030," said iFOREST CEO Chandra Bhushan, stressing the need for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) for manufacturers to recover and safely dispose of refrigerants.
While the India Cooling Action Plan seeks to reduce refrigerant demand by 25%-30% by 2037-38, the survey warns that it lacks enforceable measures to prevent leakage or ensure safe end-of-life disposal. Effective lifecycle refrigerant management, iFOREST estimates, could avoid 500-650 MtCO₂e emissions between 2025 and 2035 while saving consumers $10 billion in refilling costs.
