Energy and Emission Reduction Potential for Bank ATM Units in India

Abstract

With the growing economy of India, banking sector growth has led to installation of thousands of Automatic Teller Machines (ATMs) throughout the country. ATMs provide 24 × 7 services as well as operate at low-temperature ranges of cooling, hence have high operating energy costs. Insulating an ATM’s envelope is not a prevalent technique in India. In the present study, an effort has been made to determine the optimum insulation thickness for three different insulation materials for the typical ATM envelope in four different climatic zones of India. Life cycle savings and payback periods for various insulation materials are also evaluated. Further, these optimally insulated ATM envelopes can be integrated with grid connected rooftop solar PV systems. The energy saving and emissions reduction potential due to these two interventions have been estimated on the national basis. Altogether in the four selected climate zones, energy saving of 17% - 30% provides the annual economic benefit of Indian National Rupees (Rs.) 3570 million with annual carbon reduction potential of about 0.60 million tCO 2 . From this study, it is observed that properly insulated ATMs integrated with rooftop solar PV systems, can significantly reduce the energy costs as well as carbon emissions in India’s context.