Team-BHP - The home / office air-conditioner thread

Quote:

Originally Posted by diyguy (Post 5070890)

Thanks i have gotten the dismantling and cleaning with chemical done once by Daikin company sent technician and once by a known guy. The known guy pressure washed and messed up by dropping the IDU cylindrical fan and breaking one of its locking points. He also did not fasten the nut well between IDU and ODU leading to a gas leak. That episode cost me 11k or so and since then i have been averse to allow these technicians to fiddle with a well running system. I will try the insitu wash once with UC. Btw can an air blower be used for the fins to unclog them?

I agreed to the dismantling as I had 5 years extended warranty, which includes practically every thing - material, gas, labour. Any damage would be repaired by them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aroy (Post 5071501)

As I had a 5 year extended warranty it cost ZERO.

In fact in the past 3 years they have dismantled and cleaned the IDU twice and done pressure in-situ washing three times.

But it seems mighty hassle to get ac cleaned so many times for a rather new ac. May I ask what is the usage pattern and where idu and odu is installed?
Also its great if LG is covering dismantling and cleaning of ac without any charges under their extended warranty program. How much did you pay for this 1 + 4 years extended warranty?

Quote:

Originally Posted by neeraj0272 (Post 5071802)

As I have stated, the AC is in my bedroom wall. The facing is North in a passage of 12 feet between two houses. The probles that I have faced for the last 20 years is

1. The location of Window/IDU is on the wall facing North.
2. The room collects a lot of dust as we tend to keep the doors and windows open in the morning.
3. The wind direction is normally East-West (same as the flight path) and some times the opposite direction. This enures that the dust flow is in the direction of the AC intake for both IDU and the ODU (located on the terrace above).

In short the AC in our bedroom is a dust magnet. Till this inverter we had a series of window AC's and the problem was the same - dust would accumulate and reduse the airflow to the extent that we had regular fan burnouts till a technician appraised us of the problem and we got the window AC cleaned at least twice a year, some time thrice. Each time the amount of muck in the fins was quite a lot.

The problem is only in the bedroom AC. All the other AC's in our house (there are 4 more - Hitachi Window, Hitachi Split, LG Inverter, Daikin Inverter) behave normally and when we wet cleaned them last time the dust in them was very low.

To answer your question, it is the environment and not the AC that is the problem. New or old the AC does get a lot of dust in it (irrespective of the dust filters), so has to be cleaned at much shorter intervals compared to others.

One thing that both LG and Daikin mechanics said, is that the fin spacing is at lleast 1/3 of what the old time (15 years ago) had. This increases the efficiency treendously, but traps dust and jams much faster. With very close spacing the dust that would have brushed off the fins now sticks to them.

Hello everyone, need a suggestion regarding A/C installation in a room which is located on the top floor measuring around 410 square feet. The room is blasted by sunshine from the sides as well as the top all through the day. Part of the room would be used as a bedroom and the other half as a sitting/living. Now i have provisions for 2 ACs on both extreme ends of the room and A/C usage will primarily be during night times. Please suggest the tonnage requirements, whether only 1 ac will suffice or 2 are required, room will most likely be occupied by only 2 persons most of the time

Regards

Quote:

Originally Posted by trinity0114 (Post 5073009)

You will need at least 2 x 1.5T inverter AC

My bedroom is on top floor with sun on two sides and the terrace. It is 12' x 16', say around 200 sqf. Even at high cool my 1.5T AC takes at least two hours to bring the room tem[temperature from 35 to 26. That is with two persons in the room. If there are 4 then it takes even longer.

If you have two inverter splits at each end of the room the advantages are :
. Cool each side as need be.
. A large room with one IDU does not cool as uniformly as two.
. When the weather is milder - rainy season, then one will suffice.
. Two AC give you redundancy. If one fails at least you have one running.
. A 3T AC is in the realm of commercial cooling, hence more expensive to buy that 2 x 1.5T.

The advantage of one AC :
. A 3T AC is in the realm of commercial cooling, hence running cost is much less.
. Service is less expensive for 1 machine compared to two.
. You can go in for floor standing IDU that has a very powerful fan and can direct sufficient air flow 180 degrees in front of it

The general rule of thumb that I use for calculating AC load in Delhi's peak summer is :

1. 1 ton for every 1000 cubic feet of room volume.
2. 1 ton for every 4/5 persons in the room.
3. 1 ton for every 3 KW of electrical load. This be fan, light, TV even chargers.

Quote:

Originally Posted by trinity0114 (Post 5073009)

Now i have provisions for 2 ACs on both extreme ends of the room and A/C usage will primarily be during night times.

From my recent learning, if you are not going to be using these acs extensively, i suggest you go for non-inverter acs. My two year old 53K 1.5T Mitsubishi Heavy Industries inverter ac has lost the ability to run on high power and i have learnt this is due to dust in the indoor fins. I have scheduled a water wash tomorrow with Urban Company and will know if this helps. I have realized that the ac is always running under powered. I have a wifi meter/switch connected to the ac that shows power consumption in real time and daily usage etc. Off late i see it always hovers around 600 watts vs its full capacity of 1650 watts. This is at a setting of 18° and fan at full speed. Never had this situation with any of my other non-inverter acs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by diyguy (Post 5075709)

My two year old 53K 1.5T Mitsubishi Heavy Industries inverter ac has lost the ability to run on high power and i have learnt this is due to dust in the indoor fins....Off late i see it always hovers around 600 watts vs its full capacity of 1650 watts. This is at a setting of 18° and fan at full speed. Never had this situation with any of my other non-inverter acs.

I have the same issue with my Voltas AC. The older Voltas fixed speed AC does a better job of cooling than the new inverter Voltas AC. The cost of pressure washer cleaning every 4 months is about Rs.650 from UC. The old AC doesn't need any fancy maintenance.

Whatever the savings you gain in power costs, you will spend more in inverter cleaning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prowler (Post 5075873)

This is a problem with all 3*+ AC. To increase efficiency, they have reduced the gap to accommodate more fins. We have faced this problem with all our window AC's and now with Inverter AC's.

If you use the AC a lot (10+ hrs per day), then the cleaning cost is much less than power saved.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aroy (Post 5075907)

If you use the AC a lot (10+ hrs per day), then the cleaning cost is much less than power saved.

Not much Aroy sir. I give below the figures for the last month:

Inverter AC : 280 units for 31 days
Fixed Speed AC : 360 units for 31 days

Both ACs work approximately the same number of hours every day. The 80 units saved will cost me approximately Rs.640/- (assuming Rs.8 per unit).

Quote:

Originally Posted by Prowler (Post 5075920)

How did you check the units consumed and what is your daily usage?
Can you elaborate on the star ratings of these ACs?

Quote:

Originally Posted by neeraj0272 (Post 5076536)

How did you check the units consumed and what is your daily usage?
Can you elaborate on the star ratings of these ACs?

I use a Sonoff Wifi Power Switch which allows you to control your connected appliances through an App in your mobile as well through Alexa. It tells you the consumption over a month. Quite useful to keep an eye on your usage pattern. I bought a dozen from Aliexpress a long time ago. All my ACs, water heaters, Inverters and UPS are routed through these switches.

The inverter AC is a 3 star and the fixed AC is also a 3 star. This rule of closely spaced fins is applicable only for split ACs. I have a 5 star fixed AC Windows AC which is oblivious to dust (touch wood).

For those who are wondering about dirt accumulation in an IDU of an Inverter AC, here is the proof. I got my LG 5* Inverter serviced yesterday. The images speak for themselves.

The home / office air-conditioner thread-rsc_4805.jpg

Fixing the "Hood"

The home / office air-conditioner thread-rsc_4809.jpg

Pressure spray

The home / office air-conditioner thread-rsc_4812.jpg

First round of water. Notice how dark it is

The home / office air-conditioner thread-rsc_4813.jpg

Second round of cleaning

The home / office air-conditioner thread-rsc_4820.jpg

Water slightly less dark. The third round had clean water.

The home / office air-conditioner thread-rsc_4827.jpg

Cleaning the ODU. The water dripping was also quite dirty, thanks to Delhi's dust.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aroy (Post 5080236)

For those who are wondering about dirt accumulation in an IDU of an Inverter AC, here is the proof.

I got the same thing done today for my Mitsubishi Heavy Industries 5* inverter ac and Daikin non-inverter today. Saw similar results as yours and it was the first time i got this done with Urban clap. Honestly i was not happy with the water spraying on the wall and bouncing off and landing on my cot. But i think it is a very quick way to clean the ac, takes just 10-15 mins for the IDU and 5-10 mins for ODU unlike my regular mechanic spending 1.5 hours per ac. Not very thorough but cooling is definitely better in my inverter ac post the water wash. I have a karcher pressure washer and should just get the flexible nozzle and the wash bag so i can do this myself going forward.