Air conditioning contributes to almost 70% of Abu Dhabi’s electricity consumption. This is not a surprising statistic, given the Emirate’s desert climate. Temperatures and humidity are both very high in the summer months. Air conditioning contributes to almost 70% of Abu Dhabi’s electricity consumption. This is not a surprising statistic, given the emirate’s desert climate. Most residential AC units (split units or window-mounted units) range in capacity from about 1 ton to 5 tons of refrigeration, and approximately 3.5 kW to 17.6 kW. Depending on a number of factors, including the surrounding environment, installation, the size of room to be cooled, the size of ac unit, thermostat settings, and efficiency, among others, air conditioning units consume a lot of energy. AC units maintain the temperature set by the user and it is critical to understand how they work as well as the costs associated with these appliances. To help us understand how a typical air conditioning unit consumes power, we’ll use the example of a 1 ton AC unit rated to 3.5kW approximately.

This means that when the compressor is on, the AC unit consumes 3.5kW of power every hour. How much does it cost to run an air conditioning unit?When temperature settings on the thermostat are too low and the unit cannot achieve the set temperature, it keeps the compressor on to try and achieve it. dual split system air conditioner priceAssuming the compressor is on for 24 hours, we can find out what the cost of operating the AC unit will be for the month.air handling unit assembly The kWh per month will be: (3.5 kW x 24 hrs/day x 30.5 days/month) = 2562 kWh/monthhow to install an hvac unit Unit cost of electricity is shown in the following table: For the calculations below, we use the example of an expat villa without accounting for any other electricity use.

It is intended to give you a general idea. Your results may vary. If the AC unit were running 24 hours a day, the cost per month would be = 2,562 kWh/month x AED 0.21/kWh = AED 538.02/month for one unit If the AC unit is running for 1hr per day the cost per month would be = AED 22.42/month for one unit The cost per month increases if the AC unit you are running is bigger. Consider for example, the cost of running an AC unit rated for 18kW for 1 hour per day: If the AC unit is rated for 18 kW and is running 1hr per day, the cost per month = AED 115.29/month for one unit There are some measures that you can take to easily help reduce your electricity consumption through your AC. Adopting these measures will generally result in a reduction of approximately 30%. We have highlighted a number of things that you can do to help reduce your AC electricity consumption: The first thing you can do is to install a programmable thermostat if you don’t already have one.

This will give you the following benefits: Ability to control your AC temperature settings, giving you greater control on managing the temperature of your home. Ability to schedule and set desired temperatures at certain times of the day. Ability to store your desired settings and repeat them automatically on a daily basis or. A programmable thermostat even allows you to have different temperature settings for different days of the week. Fact 1:Did you know that temperature is a key factor in the amount of energy your AC consumes? The lower the temperature setting on your AC thermostat, the more energy it uses. Fact 2: A small change can go a long way. Did you know that increasing your AC thermostat temperature settings by just 1 degree Celsius can save you up to 6% of your electricity consumption. The second thing you can do is to purchase energy-efficient AC units. These are readily available in the market. Look for AC units with SEER Rating (Seasonable Energy Efficacy Rating) of at least 13.

Fact 3: Did you know that energy-efficient AC units can shave up to 40% off the cost of running your AC? The third measure you can take is to ensure that regular maintenance is performed on your AC units; this can be as simple as cleaning or replacing filters on a regular basis. Fact 4: Making sure you conduct regular maintenance on your AC system could help you save up to 30% of your AC electricity consumption. The fourth measure you can take is to ensure your home has proper insulation. This will prevent cold air from escaping, thus keeping your home cooler for a longer period of time. Consider closing curtains or blinds over windows during the hottest part of the day and ensure your windows are properly insulated. The fifth measure you can take is to use your AC unit only when and where it is needed. Turn AC units off in unoccupied rooms and when you are not at home.These days you hear so many advertisements talking about inverter AC, inverter fridges and even inverter Microwave ovens.

So what is this "inverter" they are all talking about? What is an inverter AC, how does an inverter AC work? What are the advantages of inverter AC technology? We aim to answer all these questions here The best type of AC to buy in India is an inverter AC, which not only saves electric power cost, but is more silent and comfortable with steady continuous cooling. A normal AC first over cools the room and cuts off the compressor till the room again gets warm, then it will restart. This constant starting and stopping of normal AC compressor makes the room too cold for a short while and then it becomes too warm. This is does not lead to a comfortable sleep. Also with the AC compressor running at high speeds when it is on, and with the constant restart of the AC compressor, a normal AC consumes a lot of current making a normal AC very inefficient and costly to use. An inverter AC on the other hand controls the temperature of the room by running the compressor at different speeds, at very slow speed when the room is at the right temperature and speeds up if the temperature starts going up.

Thus a room cooled by an inverter AC stays at a constant comfortable temperature enabling a very good sleep. Compare inverter AC vs normal AC, an inverter AC uses 40% less electric power and you get a much better sleep with constant cool temperature. The inverter AC is very silent and lasts much longer than normal AC, because the inverter AC runs at slower speeds and there is no wear and tear of the compressor stopping and starting constantly. In an inverter AC, the 50 cycles per second or 50Hz alternating current in our power supply is first converted into a Direct Current DC and then it is reconverted into an alternating current where the frequency is infinitely variable, from say 10 cycles per second or HZ to say 100 cycles per second. This variable frequency enables the main compressor motor of the AC to turn at different speeds. With the fixed 50Hz AC of our electric supply, the compressor motor of normal air conditioner can only turn at one speed, but with a variable frequency, the compressor motor of the AC can run at different speeds, from very low to very high speeds.

There are many advantages of the AC compressor to be run at different speeds as explained below. The problem with the fixed 50Hz power supply is that it will turn electric motors only at only a fixed speed depending on the number of poles. Then you may ask, but we can have our fans running at different speeds without an inverter? Yes true, but the fan speed control is limited and is achieved by the use of changing the number of poles or by changing the voltage which can only have a very limited speed control and is not very efficient. Since the speed of any electric motor depends on the frequency of the voltage applied to it, so to control the speed of an electric motor, the most efficient way is to control the frequency of the power supply voltage. To achieve this, the AC power supply to our houses has to be first converted into DC and this DC power converted back to AC voltage with the ability to infinitely control the frequency of the AC voltage. The device that converts DC voltage to AC voltage is known as an inverter.

A 5 star normal AC is the most efficient normal AC, but it cannot be as efficient as an inverter AC, because the inverter AC works on a totally different principle. Also inverter ACs have no star rating as yet in India. The regular AC compressor has only one speed and the cooling is controlled by offing the AC compressor when a set cold temperature has been reached and then restarting the AC compressor when the room heats up and reaches a set temperature. For example, if you set the thermostat in the regular AC to cool the room to 22 degrees, then the AC compressor starts when the room temperature is 24 degrees and stops when the room has cooled to 20 degrees. This is the cycle that repeats itself throughout the period that the AC is on. This is a very inefficient way of the compressor working. The problems with this arrangement are as follows: The graph below shows the room temperature of a normal AC compared to inverter AC An inverter compressor in AC solves all the disadvantages of the normal AC and saves more than 40% on electricity bills as claimed by some of the manufacturers.

Apart from this the inverter AC is very silent compared to a normal AC and the compressor lasts much longer, because it is never stressed. When an inverter AC is put on, the compressor starts slowly and picks up speed gradually and reaches a higher speed than a normal AC for a short period to cool the room faster than a normal AC. Once the set temperature of say 22 degrees C is reached, the compressor slows down and has just enough speed to maintain the set temperature of the room. The compressor never stops while the AC is on; it just runs very slowly cooling the room just enough to maintain the set temperature. The variance in temperature in the room will be in decimals, in our example of 22 degrees it may go down to 21.9 and up to 22.1 degrees, which is negligible. A normal one ton AC uses on an average about 1.25 units of electricity every running hour. This of course will vary depending on many factors like outside temperature, insulation factor of the room, etc., but 1.25 units of electricity is about the average.

The 1 ton inverter AC power consumption per hour would be about 40% less than that of a one ton normal AC. That means the power consumption of a 1 ton inverter AC will be about 0.75 units of electricity. Assuming 8 hours of operation per day, that will be 10 units of electricity per day for normal AC and only 6 units per day for a 1 ton inverter AC. Thus the monthly power bill for a normal AC, assuming Electricity cost at Rs.5- per unit, will Rs.1,500- per month compared to Rs.900- for a 1 ton inverter AC. Therefore the saving in electricity cost of a 1 ton inverter AC for a month is Rs.600-, and Rs.7200- per year. In the above example let us say that the 1 ton inverter AC costs Rs.10,000- more than the normal 1 ton AC, then with the monthly electric bill saving of Rs.600 per month, you will have paid off this extra money for the inverter AC in a matter of about one and half years. If you use the inverter AC for 5 years, then you will have saved more money with the inverter AC than the cost of the AC itself.