How To Find The Right Air Conditioner?
With increasing temperature every year, scorching summers have become difficult to bear. Nowadays even air coolers have become ineffective to give a relief from the heat. Thanks to an increased buying power people are now switching over to air conditioners and the Indian market has grown up more than 7 million units per year.
In this vast market, many brands have launched their models with lots of features and a wide range of Air conditioner in India. Due to the availability of so many options, it becomes confusing and difficult to choose the best air conditioner and consumer often ends up buying the wrong model.
Here is the guide which can help deciding the most suitable model/ brand for your need:
- Type:
There are several types of air conditioners in the market but the most common are Split air-conditioners and Window air conditioners. Though people tend to choose split AC over a window ACs as it has many advantages like low noise in the room, less vibration, larger area for air circulation and is ideal for rooms with no window provision. But it has some limitations also like high price and drilling of the wall for installation which can be a major issue if you live in a rental property. Servicing also becomes a problem if the outdoor unit is difficult to access especially in case of high rise buildings.
2. Cooling capacity or tonnage:
Next factor is to decide on the optimum size of AC depending on your requirement or room conditions. If is misbelief that a bigger AC cools better. Though this is true to some extent installing a bigger AC than required causes increased power consumption and sometimes frequent operation of the thermostat, affecting the life of air conditioner.
As a rough correlation of AC tonnage with respect to room size is 120 ~140 Sq. ft. the area will need 1 ton, 150 ~180 Sq. ft. the area will need 1.5 ton and 180 ~240 Sq. ft. the area will need 2-ton cooling capacity air –conditioner.
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3. Energy efficiency:
One of the most important factors to consider is the energy efficiency or Star rating of the model which indicated the annual power consumption the product will have. Higher Energy efficiency or Star rating means more saving.
4. Price:
With so many brands in the market, trying to get maximum sales share and high competition, there is a vast range of Air conditioner price in India starting from as low as Rs 15000. The price increase depending on features, tonnage, Star rating, Brand, type etc. Higher star rating also results in higher cost. Inverter ACs are further energy efficient than the regular ones and are generally 20% costlier as well from a 5-star rated AC.
5. After sales support:
This is an important point to consider while buying any electronic product. A good and old brand will be having a strong service network as they focus on long-term customer association and delight. Model and brands having lower price range with features similar to higher priced products may cause a poor service support, whereas bigger brands will charge premium price to build a reliable service network. After all, nobody would like to wait for days for their product get repaired in scorching heat.
Other features to also look for:
- Noise Level: Since an AC is most required at night time to provide a comfortable sleep, having an AC producing high noise can be irritating and cause a nuisance. Always check the noise level while comparing different models.
- Additional features like Sleep mode, timer, heat sensing louvres, auto swing, auto clean, plasma filter, etc. are some of the features available in the market these days. They add up to the overall comfort of the consumer but it depends on your requirement. Otherwise, you may end up paying unnecessarily.
