04/03/2015
Difference between a BEE 5 star rated and Inverter Technology Air Conditioner
There is a lot of buzz about inverter technology air conditioners these days. Rising electricity tariffs are hurting people and most people understand that air conditioners significantly increase electricity bills. Thus there is a lot of interest for air conditioners that consume less electricity for same amount of cooling output. Some of the most common questions on that are: 1) What is the difference between BEE 5 star rated AC and Inverter Tech AC? 2) I want to buy a 1.5 ton Inverter Tech AC, which one should I buy? 3) I see high EER for certain ACs (above 10), are they better than others? 4) Are there windows AC available in the market with inverter technology?
Below is the collection of responses that we have provided to people and we hope it helps many others.
Difference between Inverter Technology AC and BEE 5 star AC:
Inverter technology air conditioners are variable speed/ variable tonnage air conditioners and thus operationally they are quite different from regular air conditioners that have single speed compressors and single tonnage. Inverter technology air conditioners adjust their speed/tonnage depending on heat load of a room. Whereas regular air conditioners do not.
Every room has a different heat load, even if they are of the same size. The heat load depends on various factors as we have listed on our article: Things that impact electricity consumption in air conditioners. To give you an analogy, every human being is different; even then the waist sizes of most trousers available in the market are fixed (leaving the ones with elastic). Inverter Technology AC is just like a trouser with an elastic waist that can adjust to the size. The other benefit is that even if the waist size increases or decreases, the trouser with elastic will adjust accordingly. Regular Air Conditioners are fixed size.
Now as we can see that operationally inverter technology air conditioners are quite different from regular air conditioners, comparing them on efficiency with regular air conditioners is not easy. Thus none of the inverter technology air conditioners have been rated on BEE star rating. Only the regular air conditioners are rated on BEE star rating.
The heat load in a room does not remain constant and it varies from seasons, varies based on number of people, varies between day and night, varies based on climate profiles of your location. To take the same analogy we mentioned above, the waist size increases or decreases with the amount of food one eats or the amount of exercise one does. So as a trouser with elastic waist can work well, an air conditioner with inverter tech can work well.
Which 1.5 Ton Inverter Tech AC should you buy?
Well Inverter Tech ACs are variable tonnage ACs, so mentioning a specific size in general does not make sense. But still manufacturers try to mention an average tonnage of the air conditioner to make it easy for people. Now again comparing the same analogy as mentioned above, if your waist size varies from 32 – 36, and you are trying to buy a fixed size trouser, you would buy one with size 36. But if you buy one with elastic, you would prefer buying one with something that can range between 32 and 36.
Similarly if the average need of your room if of 1.5 ton, you would buy an AC that can operate between 1.2 ton & 1.8 ton, which will be the range of an inverter tech AC marked with 1.5 ton. But if your room’s max need is 1.5 ton, then you would want to buy an AC that can operate between 1 ton & 1.5 ton.
Conclusion
With this article we have tried to answer some of the common questions we get about inverter technology on this platform. But if you still have some doubts in your mind, feel free to drop in a note in the comments section below. We try to answer almost all the questions that we get on out site. Your questions and their responses will help you decide on the right AC and will also help others make up their minds.
