What is Inverter AC? Are you looking for the answer to this question? Then this article is for you. Here we will try to answer all your possible questions regarding Inverter AC.
When you think of buying the best air conditioner in India, you often hear about inverter AC. Have you ever wondered what this inverter AC is? Do you think that the inverter AC might run on the home inverter during power outrage? That’s what many people think. However, that’s not the case. Inverter AC has nothing to do with a home inverter.
An inverter AC operates depending on the inverter technology. That is why they are called inverter AC.
Inverter technology is a state-of-the-art advanced technology capable of saving 30% to 40% of electricity compared to an ordinary air conditioner. As you may know, BEE provides a star rating to a product, depending on its power-saving capacity. From 2016, BEE started giving a star rating to Inverter AC separately, and in 2018 it merged star rating of Inverter AC and Non-Inverter AC.
Let us now discuss what inverter AC is, where it is different from non-inverter AC, and what are its advantages. However, this is not a technical article, so we will not go into the depth of the technology here. We will try to explain the matter simply using some examples.
How does AC work?
To understand what is inverter AC, we first need to know how an air conditioner works. Many people think that an air conditioner might work just like an air cooler. However, that is not the case.
An air cooler pulls outside air, cools it with water, and throws it into the room. But in the case of AC, the opposite is true.
An air conditioner pulls the air inside the room, passing it through the evaporator. As the air passes through the evaporator, it cools down, and the air conditioner finally throws this cold air back into the room.
Let’s talk a little more about the working principle of the air conditioning machine. An AC consists mainly of three components which are compressor, condenser and evaporator. The compressor and condenser are fitted in the outdoor unit whereas the evaporator is located within the indoor unit.
Besides, an air conditioner uses a chemical called refrigerant (cooling gas). It can be continuously converted from gas to liquid and from liquid to gas, depending on the different conditions. And by changing the state, it absorbs heat from inside the room and releases it outside.
First of all, the refrigerant comes in the compressor. The compressor puts a lot of pressure on the refrigerant and converts it into a high-pressure liquid. And consequently, the temperature of the refrigerant increases.
After that, the refrigerant exits the compressor and comes into the condenser. As it passes through the condenser coil, it releases heat to the outside air. The condenser unit has a fan that makes this job more manageable. Besides, the expansion valve lowers the pressure of the refrigerant, which makes it much cooler.
In the next step, this cold refrigerant comes to the evaporator coil in the indoor unit. At the same time, the indoor unit pulls the air inside the room and passes it through the evaporator, causing the air to cool down. And finally, the indoor unit throws this cold air into the room.
This whole process repeatedly happens in a cycle until the temperature inside the room reaches the desired level.
The AC unit has a thermostat that always monitors room temperature. The thermostat stops this process when it detects that the room temperature has reached the desired level. After a while, when the temperature of the room rises again, the thermostat restarts the whole process.
What is Inverter AC?
Let’s now see what Inverter AC is. We know that, in the case of a conventional air conditioner, the thermostat always monitors the temperature of the room.
When the room temperature reaches the desired level, the thermostat completely shuts off the compressor, then only the fan continues. After a while, when the room temperature rises again, the thermostat turns on the compressor. And the compressor continues to full capacity.
So, in case of typical AC, either the compressor is running at full capacity, or it is entirely off. With the compressor repeatedly turned on and off in this manner, the power consumption is significantly increased.
When it comes to inverter technology, it’s a bit different. In this case, the compressor runs all the time. It never stops. Now you may be wondering if the compressor is always on, then the power consumption is going to be high. However, the opposite is true. In this case, the consumption of electricity is much less.
Inverter technology is designed in such a way that it supplies more power when the compressor needs it. On the other hand, when the compressor needs less power, it gives less power.
Firstly, the power consumption is highest at the moment the compressor is turned on. When it comes to inverter technology, the compressor does not turn on and off repeatedly, so it does not require additional power.
Secondly, in the case of inverter technology, the compressor draws more power or less power depending on the room temperature and the desired temperature set on the thermostat. In other words, Inverter technology controls the compressor’s speed and power consumption appropriately. In this way, the inverter technology can reduce power consumption by 30% to 40% compared to ordinary AC.
Recommended Reading: Best Inverter AC in India
What are the advantages of Inverter AC?
You must know that the capacity of an air conditioner depends on the size of the room. But the size and condition of each room are not the same. Now, the power consumption of an air conditioner should be optimized depending on this changing situation. But that is not the case with ordinary AC. For example, after starting a traditional 1.5 ton AC, it continues to operate at its highest power, regardless of changing conditions. As a result, it wastes a lot of electricity.
On the other hand, indeed, ACs with inverter technology run continuously. But it can run at variable speed. So, it draws only that much power, which is needed to maintain the desired temperature of the room.
In simple terms, with the inverter technology, an air conditioner can adjust its capacity automatically, depending on the size of the room, temperature, etc. So, in this case, the power wastage is very low, which helps reduce your electricity bill.
Is the inverter AC slow in cooling?
Many people ask, does the inverter AC take too long to cool the room? Some again think that the inverter AC can’t cool the room properly. But in reality, this is not the case.
You might be surprised to hear that regular AC often over-cools the room. Suppose you have selected a temperature of 24. But in reality, your room temperature has dropped to 21 or 22 at that time. Now you may wonder, what is the function of the thermostat? In fact, the thermostat works just fine. Let us discuss why this happens.
Non-inverter AC is fixed speed AC where the compressor is turned on and off repeatedly. Inverter AC, on the other hand, is a variable speed AC where the compressor runs continuously.
When the non-inverter AC is running, it continues to its full capacity, which is perfect for a hot summer afternoon but not for other times. Most of the time, there is no need to run the AC at full speed to cool down the room.
Now you may think that the thermostat will stop the operation once the room temperature reaches the desired level. Where is the difficulty then? There are some problems because a lot of things happen before the thermostat stops the operation.
We have discussed above how an AC works. We know that refrigerant (cooling gas) converts from liquid to gas by absorbing heat from the room. The compressor again turns it back to liquid by putting a lot of pressure, and the cycle continues.
Now, suppose you have selected the temperature of 24. In this case, the moment the room temperature reaches 24, the thermostat will turn off the compressor. But when the refrigerant is more, and the room temperature is low, the refrigerant does not get enough heat to convert from liquid to gas. So it rotates in a liquid state, and it still can absorb heat from the room and transform into a gas. In this case, it absorbs more heat from the room and reduces the room temperature below the desired temperature.
This is not the case with inverter technology. Here refrigerant flow rate varies depending on the temperature of the room and the desired temperature set on the thermostat. It never stops the inverter, and it just ensures the desired temperature of the room is maintained at all times.
So, it’s not correct that the inverter is AC slow. Instead, the traditional AC over-cools the room.
Conclusion
We talked about inverter AC so far. We have discussed what is Inverter AC, what are its advantages, where it is different from Non-Inverter AC. If you have any specific questions, please let us know in the comments section below. We will try to answer as soon as possible.
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Thank you so much for such beautiful explanation. This is really very helpful.
Thanks again
Please also discuss the disadvantages of using inverter AC (if at all) to make this informative article complete.
The AC technicians advice to opt for non inverter AC . they say inverter AC maintenance is very difficult. If there is any fault it is very difficult and expensive to repair as it works on circuit board technology. Most mechanics have no knowledge even for periodic servicing