Inverter AC opinions needed

[fayaz88]

AoA,
Anyone here tried inverter AC?
Which brand was it?
Does it consume less electricity?

 

[HAMMER of THOR]

I was seeing toshiba inverter ACs recently... they have some really wicked features e.g heating in winters(don't know if others also do it) and the compressor doesn't suddenly come on like normal a.cs... it does it slowly so that the whole house does not shake up when the compressor starts(that saves a lot of electricity and wiring health) and could be easily run off a ups due to that... a normal a.c would start up at much much higher wattage than what it requires for normal operation

 

[Xtreme10]

well i purchased orient dc inverter ... prime series last month ... checked it heatin n coolin ... both worked fine .. took 3 amps when heatin n coolin ... checked it with dc clamp meter ... also usin' it with my APC UPS 3 kva .... i kept it on for 5 mins n wallah!!!! its coolin was perfect as well as heatin' ........ i purchased it @ 53k ... 1.5 ton ...

 

[GuyfromKarachi]

I use inverters exclusively in my home...while its quite hard to compare their power saving feature (becuase I don't have another "control" home that I can compare with), by rough estimates, if I compare with my uncle's home: I run higher capacity units for ~10% longer and my electric bill is only 60% of his.

Again these sorts of comparisons are hard to do, becuase I don't know exactly how long he's running his ACs, or even what the runtime is in my home. But the point being that yes, I do feel that they save money. The amount is up for grabs.

Just one piece of advice: if you do decide to buy an inverter unit, you have to run it for a while before it's power saving features kick in. I know a lot of people, only turn on their ACs for an hour or two...in that case it isn't worth the additional cost of an inverter unit. Also, set your unit at a reasonable temperature (eg 25C), not the minimum that some leave it at.

I have a mixture of Panasonic and Toshiba units. They all work fine.

 

[fayaz88]

I was seeing toshiba inverter ACs recently... they have some really wicked features e.g heating in winters(don't know if others also do it) and the compressor doesn't suddenly come on like normal a.cs... it does it slowly so that the whole house does not shake up when the compressor starts(that saves a lot of electricity and wiring health) and could be easily run off a ups due to that... a normal a.c would start up at much much higher wattage than what it requires for normal operation

Do you remember the price/model of that Toshiba AC?

 

[fayaz88]

well i purchased orient dc inverter ... prime series last month ... checked it heatin n coolin ... both worked fine .. took 3 amps when heatin n coolin ... checked it with dc clamp meter ... also usin' it with my APC UPS 3 kva .... i kept it on for 5 mins n wallah!!!! its coolin was perfect as well as heatin' ........ i purchased it @ 53k ... 1.5 ton ...

I have Orient's build quality is poor... Is this true?

 

[The Alchemist]

I was seeing toshiba inverter ACs recently... they have some really wicked features e.g heating in winters(don't know if others also do it) and the compressor doesn't suddenly come on like normal a.cs... it does it slowly so that the whole house does not shake up when the compressor starts(that saves a lot of electricity and wiring health) and could be easily run off a ups due to that... a normal a.c would start up at much much higher wattage than what it requires for normal operation

The heating feature is an old feature which I have been seeing in ACs from around 5 years back.
The compressor slowly turning on is the primary feature/selling point of ALL inverter ACs.

 

[fayaz88]

I use inverters exclusively in my home...while its quite hard to compare their power saving feature (becuase I don't have another "control" home that I can compare with), by rough estimates, if I compare with my uncle's home: I run higher capacity units for ~10% longer and my electric bill is only 60% of his.

Again these sorts of comparisons are hard to do, becuase I don't know exactly how long he's running his ACs, or even what the runtime is in my home. But the point being that yes, I do feel that they save money. The amount is up for grabs.

Just one piece of advice: if you do decide to buy an inverter unit, you have to run it for a while before it's power saving features kick in. I know a lot of people, only turn on their ACs for an hour or two...in that case it isn't worth the additional cost of an inverter unit. Also, set your unit at a reasonable temperature (eg 25C), not the minimum that some leave it at.

I have a mixture of Panasonic and Toshiba units. They all work fine.

I have also heard this from somewhere else that Inverter only save electricity if you run them longer.. Why is this so? If suppose I buy a 1 ton inverter AC and set it to approx 25C and use it daily for like 8 hours (or however many hours you use to make it easy).. In ballpark figure, how much do you think my bill would be? I just need a very rough estimate...

 

[HAMMER of THOR]

I have also heard this from somewhere else that Inverter only save electricity if you run them longer.. Why is this so? If suppose I buy a 1 ton inverter AC and set it to approx 25C and use it daily for like 8 hours (or however many hours you use to make it easy).. In ballpark figure, how much do you think my bill would be? I just need a very rough estimate...

they don't know what to say so they say this crap, and they are wrong... inverter will save money no matter what...

 

[hamidkhatri]

well i purchased orient dc inverter ... prime series last month ... checked it heatin n coolin ... both worked fine .. took 3 amps when heatin n coolin ... checked it with dc clamp meter ... also usin' it with my APC UPS 3 kva .... i kept it on for 5 mins n wallah!!!! its coolin was perfect as well as heatin' ........ i purchased it @ 53k ... 1.5 ton ...

So, 3amps x 220v = 660 watts..

How much a non-inverter 1.5 ton AC takes?

 

[The Alchemist]

I have also heard this from somewhere else that Inverter only save electricity if you run them longer.. Why is this so? If suppose I buy a 1 ton inverter AC and set it to approx 25C and use it daily for like 8 hours (or however many hours you use to make it easy).. In ballpark figure, how much do you think my bill would be? I just need a very rough estimate...

There will probably still be saving if you use it for less time but savings will be more if you use AC for longer periods of time.

Conventional ACs run at full power and trip on reaching set temp. Inverter ACs start at high power but gradually slow down as room temperature decreases. Power here means electricity consumption, compressor speed and cool air temperature.

So if you use conventional ACs the cycle will be fullpower-trip-fullpower-trip-fullpower... but with inverter AC it will be highpower-mediumpower-then it will remain at constant Low Power. Keeping air temperature constant.
The efficiency comes from not having to turn on and off.

If you use AC for short period of time i.e. turn on your AC and when room cools down, you turn it off. Then you wont have much savings compared to conventional AC. Or e.g. if you use a small inverter AC in a big room where the air temp does not go down.