Air Conditioners are , without any doubt , the single most energy guzzlers in any household. So much so , that in some households , electricity cost of AC's outnumbers the electricity cost of all other appliances put together in the house! Needless to say , small steps taken to conserve energy here will yield good results. The important question is how do I do it ?
The solution lies in following the steps outlined below :
- Proper Selection
- Proper installation
- Proper room insulation
- Proper running.
- Proper discipline.
Proper Selection :
- STAR RATING : All new AC's come with a BEE (Beureau of Energy Efficiency ) star rating , on a scale of 1 to 5. Higher the rating , lesser the energy consumed. Dont go after a brand , go after the star rating. Almost all brands have products falling into rating from 3 to 5 , so one must choose model with highest rating even though the initial cost may be a shade higher ( higher initial cost will be recovered in a year or two by ways of energy saving )
- Choose your Tonnage : Most people go for standard 1.5 Ton AC when the actual requirement may be much lesser. One 'Ton' of airconditioning is equivalent to melting One TON of ICE in ONE hour.( Melting ice absorbs heat & as a result air gets cooled ). More the tonnage of AC means more is the heat removed every hour. Surprisingly , most people think that Tons of air conditioning has got something to do with the weight of AC , which is absolutely untrue ! Broadly speaking , a room of size 10' x 15' can do with a 1 Ton AC .
- Rotary or Reciprocating : Generally speaking , rotary compressor AC's are much efficient than reciprocating ones . Surprisingly though , many people opt for reciprocating ones because they say that ' resale cost is better ' ! How strange , that at the time of buying , we are more concerned of the scrap cost 10 years down the line , but not of the running cost for all these years !
- Temperature control 'auto cut' - Although this feature is available on all machines , but ones with digital display, instead of mechanical knobs, seem to have a better control. Also , make sure you can change the temp setting using a remote or else you will end up spending the whole season on a single setting !
- Window or split - There are different views on this one. Generally split AC's seem to perform better but much depends on the quality of installation though.
Thats all for today folks . Please send your feedback / comments on this post .
Tomorrow we'll take up some of the other points to ponder listed above.
Bye for now.
Ashish Kumar
