Difference between Inverter and non Inverter Air Conditioner.

Introducing Inverter Technology

Air Conditioners are a pain point for most people in our country who are concerned about their electricity bills. The moment an air conditioner is added to the list of appliances used in a household, the electricity bills increase significantly. Although it is difficult to significantly reduce the “big” impact of an air conditioner on your electricity bills, but still some of it can be managed by choosing the right technology, doing the right installation/maintenance/operation and by doing the right insulation of the room where the air conditioner is used.

When it comes to technology, there were not many available few days earlier. The latest and the most efficient technology that is available in market today is the Inverter Technology for air conditioners. Inverter technology is designed in such a way that it can save 30-50% of electricity (units consumed) over a regular air conditioner. However, let’s look at what is inverter technology and how is it different from a non inverter.

How does an air conditioner work?

Most people think air conditioner just throws cool air at the temperature one sets it at. But does it really work that way? In fact air conditioner during cooling process, takes the indoor air, cools it by passing it through evaporator and throws it back in the room. It is quite opposite to how our good old air coolers used to work. Air coolers used to take outside air, cool it with water and throw it in. But air conditioners just work on internal air. Along with evaporator air conditioner also has a compressor that compresses the gas (refrigerant) in the AC to cool it that in turn cools the incoming internal air from the room.

In a regular air conditioner:

The compressor is either off or on. When it is on, it works at full capacity and consumes full electricity. When the thermostat reaches the temperature level set in the AC, the compressor stops and the fan (in AC) continues to operate. When the thermostat senses that the temperature has increased, the compressor starts again.

What is Inverter Air Conditioner?

The inverter technology works like an accelerator in a car. When compressor needs more power, it gives it more power. When it needs less power, it gives less power. With this technology, the compressor is always on, but draws less power or more power depending on the temperature of the incoming air and the level set in the thermostat. The speed and power of the compressor is adjusted appropriately. This technology was developed in Japan and is being used there successfully for air conditioners and refrigerators. This technology is currently available only in split air conditioners.

What is benefit of Inverter Technology?

Every air conditioner is designed for a maximum peak load. So a 1.5 ton AC is designed for a certain size of room and 1 ton for a different size. But not all rooms are of same size. A regular air conditioner of 1.5 ton capacity will always run at peak power requirement when the compressor is running. An air conditioner with inverter technology will run continuously but will draw only that much power that is required to keep the temperature stable at the level desired. So it kind of automatically adjusts its capacity based on the requirement of the room it is cooling. Thus drawing much less power and consuming lesser units of electricity.

Although air conditioner with Inverter Technology adjusts its capacity based on the room requirement. It is very important to install a right sized air conditioner in a room. Please make sure that you evaluate the room and air conditioner capacity before you make a purchase.

What’s the difference between Inverter Technology AC and non inverter 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: 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.

    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.

Top  advantages of inverters that make them better than non-inverters

Pictures from Panasonic

#Eco friendly

The biggest difference between inverter and non-inverter AC is the fact that the motor of the inverter compressor has a variable speed. The speed of the non-invertor compressor is fixed. This means that it operates either at full or minimum speed. A censor in the invertor adjusts the power according to the temperature in the room, lowering the electrical consumption and saving energy.

#Saving money

Due to the sophisticated operational method of the invertor, its compressor does not work at its full capacity all the time. When the speed is lower, the needed energy is lower too and you pay less money for electricity.

#More quiet sound

As the compressor motor of the inverter air conditioner does not turn on and off all the time, but keeps working at low power, the operation is more quiet.

#Longer life

The technology of the inverters not only makes cooling and heating more efficient, but it also makes the AC’s life longer.

#Faster Cooling/Heating

Last but not least, the inverter AC is able to cool or heat your room faster than the non-inverter. This is due to the fact that in the beginning of the process, the inverter uses more power than the non-inverter and diminish the power when it gets close to the desired temperature.