Buying the perfect AC: Factors to consider

During summers, fans and coolers rarely give the kind of comfort that is provided by air conditioners. However, owing to the multitude of choices available, one often gets confused. Following is an analysis on how to buy the perfect AC unit.

In order to buy an air conditioner, the most important thing to know is the capacity, i.e., whether one would be buying a 1.0, 1.5 or 2.0 ton unit. The main reason why this is such an important factor is because if, for a particular room, a person buys an incredibly heavy capacity air conditioner, it's going to be a big problem to continuously keep switching it on and off, or running it way below its capacity, and both of these scenarios are not at all good for the overall life span of the AC unit. This kind of a situation will arise since the air conditioner, even if operated on an average setting, is going to reduce the temperature of the area drastically within a short span of time. On the flipside, if an AC unit that is much smaller than the required capacity is purchased, it will result in lesser cooling, which is again a big problem.

Technically speaking, one ton of air conditioner equals to 12,000 BTU, short for British Thermal Unit. One BTU is the amount of heat that is required to increase or decrease the temperature of one pound of water by 10 degree Fahrenheit. However, this is not a fixed measure, and the effectiveness is based on the external conditions like temperature and humidity levels. The next factor to be considered is the energy efficiency. In India, this is decided by a star rating, and all reliable electronics must have an efficiency rating to let the consumer know what is it that he is buying, and how much would its running cost be. The more the number of stars (out of a rating of five), the lower would be the energy consumption.

The fan in the AC unit circulates the air in the room, and that is why it is important to look for air conditioners that have multiple airflow settings. When the need arises, the high setting can be used, which is going to draw more electricity and also be a bit more noisy, but will cool the room very quickly. However, if one does not want fast cooling, and prefers having silent operation of the AC with lower energy consumption,the low airflow setting can be used.

Another useful constituent of an AC unit are ionisers, which emit negatively charged air that reduces airborne odours by producing ozone gas. It is also beneficial if the AC unit has effective sensors that can optimally and intelligently switch the compressor on and off as per the room temperature and the desired temperature that has been set by the user. While every air conditioner in recent times features a sensor, the difference comes in the efficiency of the same, which has a dominant effect on the AC unit's electricity consumption.

For more information on Air Conditioner visit: http://www.samsung.com/in