By Jyotika Kapur (PricePaaji.com)
Buying an AC
With the increase in global warming the temperature graph has soared up to a greater level making the luxurious Air Conditioner (AC) a necessity. But, with this comes the soaring electricity bills. As, necessity is the mother of all inventions, this led to the invention of Star rated AC’s (1star, 3 star & 5 star) and the latest –Inverter AC’s. With extra stars and the recent Inverter technology, comes higher initial investment. Hence, I compared July prices of 5 AC brands and put it down as a graph just to show you the differences in the prices as the technology changes.
According to my analysis the prices of the inverter AC is touching the sky. Then I got wondering how much money will I save on my electricity bill if I pay Rs 7000 more upfront and buy an inverter AC. I decided to figureout whether this is really worthwhile investing additional rupees or is it just a marketing gimmick to empty our already lighter wallets.
So, what exactly is the fuss about Inverter AC?
In Inverter AC’s an inverter is used to control the speed of the compressor motor to regulate the temperature of the room continuously where as in non Inverter AC the compressor motor regulates the room temperature by either working at the maximum capacity or in the switched off mode
Wow…!!! The theory looks plausible, but then I asked…….So What???
Having said all this, “how does it affect my pocket and overall lifestyle?” is the question that crossed my mind. I did a little research on it. Based on the points mentioned below I tried getting to the bottom of this.
1) POWER CONSUMPTION :
As various top companies claim: “The Inverter AC saves up to 40% of your electricity”. Let’s dig deeper into this claim. Thanks to Daikin’s blog for the graph.
Power consumption required P = VRMS X R RMSCos(theta)
(whereVRMS= Voltage and IRMS = Current)
In order to attain the set point both the Inverter AC and the non Inverter AC will initially draw power which will be Vrms X Irmscos(*theta) power, but in Inverter AC the value of theta is varied by 5 to 10% by the inverter technology making it a constant wave. Thus less fluctuation and constant consumption of power. If you look at non-inverter AC,the compressor motor drops down back to the switched off state and draws the same amount of power in the next cycle as a result over all power required to reach the set point is more.
This toggling of the cos wave is the main reason why non Inverter AC takes longer to attain the required temperature. The maximum power (read electricity) consumption is when the Compressor is switched OFF/ON again and again. Since Inverter does away with this mechanism, they claim it consumes less electricity. In this case inverter completely steals the brownie points and goes ahead of the non-inverter AC. But is it to the tune of 40%, I am still pondering over that claim.
2) EFFICIENCY :
So I continued to dig deep into this. As the Inverter AC consumes a constant power it cools faster as compared to non-inverter AC that takes a longer time to attain the required room temperature.
But this still doesn’t answer my question and my curiosity has reached new pinnacle.
So I wonder how much does the inverter AC actually affect the electricity bill? This may be open to speculation as it has been calculated using various parameters like EER, Input Power, BTU etc. I did use yahoo answers and reliance digital to come to this analysis
Costing of using 1 ton split AC for 8 hours
Type Cost/Month Cost/Day
3 Star 832.32 27.74
5 Star 724.32 24.14
Inverter 619.20 19.12
As you can see the cost difference according to speculations gives a difference of Rs 108 when you compare 3 stars AC and 5 stars AC where as if you compare 5 star AC and the inverter AC the cost difference is of Rs 150. But 40 % of 724.32 is Rs 289. Well. I really hope the inverter mechanism (i.e. compressor On/off gives me rest of the savings.)
3) ECONOMICAL :
I was highly disappointed when I seen these numbers but I thought to my self why not calculate how much it will save me over the years. May be I will be able to regain the extra cash that I put in when buying an inverter AC. I assumed that an air conditioner works for 7 years .
If you use your AC on an average for only 6 hours for 4 months of summer and you manage to save maximum 150 one month you will save 4 month X 7YEARS X 150 RUPEES = 4,200 RUPEES.
On analysing this data I realised paying a minimum of Rs 4000 extra on an inverter AC, I am will be saving a amount of Rs 4200/- only It really makes no sense to me. So if anyone can help figure why they say 40% off on electricity list please put me out of my misery.
4) CONCLUSION :
So, after going through various websites and carefully analysing data available at hand, I came to a conclusion that Inverter AC will add to your lifestyle via its steady operation by maintaining a near-constant temperature and quieter operation. But when it’s comes to saving big on electricity bills, it’s still open to debate in my capacity. I agree there is a cost difference because of the almost steady power input, the lower noise and faster cooler are the plus points of an inverter AC and if you are using your AC for long hours (read continuous long hours) then inverter model might be the way ahead for you. But if your usage is only few hours per day, then a 3-star AC might suffice.
PS Thanks to PricePaaji for their information
Pricepaaji.com which provides local prices of any product/service at the click of a button.
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