As the mercury continues to rise, this summer is becoming unbearable in many parts of the country. Frustrated by the extreme heat, students at an educational institute in Amritsar staged a unique protest to demand air conditioning in their dorm rooms. A video, reportedly from IIM Amritsar, shows students sleeping in the institute’s mess as a mark of silent protest against the management’s failure to provide adequate cooling facilities in the dorms amid the heatwave. 

According to reports, the mess is one of the few areas of the IIM Amritsar hostel where AC has been installed. The video shows students sleeping on canteen chairs with their heads down, with one even lying on a table.

The caption of the video shared on X reads, ”IIM Amritsar students protested against the management to get AC installed in their hostel by sleeping in the library that has AC. One of them said, “Modern problem requires modern solution”. The user further corrected his tweet and mentioned that the place where students slept was the mess area and not the library. 

IIM Amritsar students protested against the management to get AC installed in their hostel by sleeping in the library that has AC. One of them said, “Modern problem requires modern solution” pic.twitter.com/d8D6rl9G9Q

— Shubh (@kadaipaneeeer) June 14, 2024

Several users empathised with the students, while some appreciated them for putting their demands forward without using any aggressive means. Some said that coolers and ACs air should be provided to students, as fans are mostly ineffective these days. 

One user wrote, ”Having just passed out from iim amritsar, I can say that the heat is unbearable at times. This demand was put forward last year too but not much was achieved. Temperature is around 45 but feels like 50. Plus one of the temporary hostels are such that you will feel better outside.”

Another commented, ”The heat is unbearable at times. The demand was put forward last year, too, but not much was achieved. Since hostel accommodations and even the campus are being run on a temporary accommodation, we hope that the shift to new building will resolve the problem.”

A third said, ”It’s already a matter of shame when a top institute cannot provide an AC in 50° Celsius temperature and students have to protest for it.”

A fourth added, ”Gotta love the ingenuity of IIM Amritsar students! Sometimes, you have to think outside the box. Hope the management gets the message!”

Amritsar has been experiencing an intense heat wave for the past few days. On Friday, Amritsar recorded a maximum temperature of 44.8 degrees Celsius, 
 

Representative image.
| Photo Credit: Orkun Azap/Unsplash

A: An air-conditioner (AC) works by moving heat from an ‘inside’ space to ‘outside’. It achieves this using a refrigerant, a substance that absorbs heat when exposed to the ‘inside’ and releases it when exposed to the ‘outside’. The refrigerant needs to be pressurised before it can absorb heat, which is achieved using a compressor.

In a traditional (non-electric) car, the energy to run the compressor comes from the engine. That is, the AC is another load on the engine aside from running the car itself. As a result, the engine consumes more fuel, but not all the fuel contributes to moving the car: some goes to running the AC. And as a result, the number of kilometres to which a single litre of petrol contributes – a.k.a. the mileage – drops.

The effect of an operating AC on the mileage also varies by the driving conditions. For example, driving within a city forces the engine to stop and start multiple times during a trip whereas on a highway the engine operates more continuously. In this scenario an AC’s effect on the engine, and the mileage, will be more pronounced in the former and less so in the latter. Drivers can also reduce the load on the engine by parking cars in shaded spots and pre-cooling the passenger area through other means before turning the AC on.

The Hindu S&T Desk