New Delhi, July 29 -- ACs are one of the biggest contributors to household electricity bills in India. With temperatures soaring above 45degC and high humidity, staying comfortable in summer, and even monsoon months, becomes a challenge. Like many people, I assumed that lowering AC's temperature would make my room cool faster and keep it comfortable. But after hearing experts and reading about the new BEE norms repeatedly recommending the 26degC setting as the ideal balance between cooling and energy efficiency, I decided to test out their advice.

What I did was that I kept my inverter AC fixed at 26degC instead of my usual 20-22degC and tracked how it affected the room's cooling performance, my comfort and my electricity bill, for a per...