The title seems like an advertisement. Well it is certainly not. I am thinking of buying a new Air Conditioner (AC) at my place and like any other thing which I bought I have done my "basic" homework for various products available in the market. [People around me always blame me for not deciding on any such thing instantaneously and stretching the matter to unnecessary length but irrespective of those views I do take my time in arriving at a final decision]. So here is what I came across when I was going through the products.
1) Panasonic was cashing on two things Inverter technology, econav mode and nanoG filter.
2) Samsung was talking about its virus doctor and built in stabilizer as well as bio sleep mode
3) Hitachi was talking about its multiflow and iclean technology
4) Sharp was talking about plasmatech as well as Inverter tech.
Like any other customer I was curious about the working of all above as the cost factor was significantly different for different specifications. What I found during discussions with the sales persons or officials representing the companies is that they know very little about their own products.
I will talk about the experience I had with Panasonic. Before I went to Panasonic store in an exhibition I had done my homework. But, I was not very much sure about the difference between antibacterial filter and nano G technology. So, first I asked that to a sales person but he could not give proper answer so I asked the person who was in charge so he routed me to some other person. He explained me about the nano G stating that it removes all the dust particles, pollen, virus and bacteria. He said it also removes the invisible viruses. The viruses which we can only see in sun rays and not by naked eyes. And I was shocked. He talked about so many other things but eventually I realized that only I will have to find the difference between the two technologies. Expect Sharp I had similar experience with other brands too.
I am coming back to my initial lines and would like to ask everybody that how many times we purchase the goods by doing proper home work ? We can spend time on fb, twitter, online gaming but can't we just check some basics of the goods we are purchasing. If we are not going to do this so called techno-sales persons would continue explaining us the "truth" about their products and we will blindly accept them. I have faced this situation many a times for almost every product. The technosales persons are either reluctant to discuss pros and cones of their product and if you ask them they just say anything. They can afford to do this because we as a customer are very lazy in finding out some simple details about the product. Before buying anything one may just go through “ buying guide of-------------”. It is the tendency to accept the things without going in to the details that has lead to this situation. Very few people take pain to know the product profile. I have even seen highly educated people to be reluctant about getting information about the product they are buying.
Helping all of you with my homework on a/c hope this will be helpful. If you have something to add please feel free to do so.
What should be the capacity of your A/C ?
It depends on the room size and if the area is below 100 sqft you can go with maximum 1 ton. Between 100-150 you may have 1.5 ton. In fact one may visit the site of LG for getting these details. However, these are rule of thumbs and may vary depending upon the floor, direction of sun and other things as well.
What are new star ratings ?
The new star ratings are more energy saving, The 3 star product of 2011 is now 2 star and likewise for every rating. You may see the star rating with energy saving potential in with green back ground for 2012.
Which refrigerant is used in my a/c?
All the a/c comes with R22 now a days but it is likely to be phased out by 2020. Our A/c running on R22 need not be replace as the production of R22 will be continued till 2030. Many companies like Panasonic, Sharp have come up with inverter technology which uses R410a. More on this for those who are interested can be shared.
Difference between plasamcluster (Sharp), nanoG (Panasonic), virus doctor (Samsung) and antibacterial filter.
The antibacterial filter will remove the bacteria which will enter the a/c machine and thus makes the air purified. However, in the case of all other technologies the machine releases some trillion negatively charged ions and these ions get attached to positively charged ions (virus, bacteria, pollen etc) and take them in the machine and thus make the room purified.
We always further the excuse that we have very little time to do all these activities, but is that true OR it is that while we do due diligence for our Employers / Clients / Students, we often are casual in our PERSONAL decision making.
ReplyDeleteThe same thing holds true even in other aspects of our day-to-day life and the matters of relationships, Investments, Future Planning etc.
Very good analysis, by the way!!!
Ya exactly you have taken the words of my mouth. we are so casual when it comes to personal affair. Thanks for the compliments. By the way the answers written are not copy pasted from anywhere.
DeleteThnx for sharing the research but more so for an important perspective....
ReplyDeleteThanks Pranav i think the initiation of discussion will also provide so much of information from others as well. You are right it is not only a/c but the perspective I want to convey.
DeleteThe truth is most technologies are fabricated with sparkling names and ultra-cool ads. While we can at least comprehend the workings of the air-conditioner in terms of in-built filters, ionization methodologies and even terms like a ton (and not mistake it for a thousand kilos), most laymen are completely at a loss in understanding these parameters. Or do their homework - so to speak - as you rightly said, Sir.
ReplyDeleteComprehensive know-how, Sir, for people to wade through the A/C jungle! I guess, the starting parameters could be the requirement of the room as well as the BEE rating. After that we can probably think of add-on features and this is where I guess the article could really help. :)
Your views are timely for me at least as I got ONE just a day back, However I believe that all offering can have two kind of features 1. Mandatory or Obligatory 2. Value added features
ReplyDeleteAssuming that Mandatory features are coming with all brands and if not than can be rejected straight away.
Value Added Features Like Antibacterial, Nano G etc can give more of perceived value than actual benifit so it purely depends on does that features appeals to you or makes sense in your kind of environment. More or less Good brands encash monies from that Marketing Gimick ( oh sorry campaign) and Brand name only.
Example - RO Installed in SAU makes sense as potable water in that part has good amount of Ca and Mg, but in Ahmedabad to Southward of Gujarat ,on the contrary less Ca intake with RO leads to chronic health problem.
THE MORAL of the story
" APNE gamyu te kharu, Raja ne game te Rani" and finally i got LLYOD 1.5 TON SPLIT AC
ya bhush you are right. I know that you are not one of those who blindly accept the marketing "campaign". Llyod is a good choice.
DeleteRegarding Nano G and Antibacterial thing you are right one has to be very clear about it but for inverter technology I think these companies do have good explanation and if our usage is more say 8-10 hours a day for at least 6-7 months of year we may spare initial extra money which can be recovered withing 3-4 years.
A correction for RO though. One needs to get the TDS level checked before selecting the unit. if the value of TDS is more than 500 (which is likely in case of bore well) one should install RO otherwise only purification system will work. for ahmedabad if you are getting Narmda water just have a simple purifier.
DeleteThank you Siddhartha for the same. The point is we professional people also fail to follow very simple thing which we may get by doing some analysis. Like 1 ton capacity. (we may answer a question in CET-I, what is 1 ton ? but we may not know actually for a/c).
ReplyDeleteOtherwise we have to depend on the claims and ads of compnies and hope that the product performs well in real situations just like they did in testing conditions.
Nice to hear from you after a long time
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ReplyDelete