Sep 06, 2012 01:11 PM
49200 Views
My AC owning experience is not very old. I bought my 1st AC on 27-03-2012 for my residence in Chandigarh which has a climate similar to Delhi. Like every other AC Buyer I was also very much confused between right tonnage, right AC type, right brand, right model and of course right budget. I live in a 2nd floor (top floor) house and the room size is around 125 sq ft. I started my research with internet and read a lot of user reviews, technical reviews, company product specifications. It was like as soon as I come back from office I sat with my laptop and kept on surfing sites for suggestions on buying ac for hours and hours. Then I started visiting shops of various brands. My budget was around Rs. 25, 000 and almost all (Not almost in fact all) shopkeepers suggested me to go for a 1.5 TON machine.
I decided to go for a window ac since I am living in a rented house and wanted to do minimum wall drillings. I finalised on a HITACHI Kaze 1.5 Ton (17085 BTUs) 3 star (1785 watts) machine for around Rs. 27, 000/- including stabilizer and fitting (Although Rs. 1, 000/- extra were spent by me on things like transport, MCB, Wire, Plywood and others). I started using this AC from mid April and was quite satisfied with the same except for the thing that it would cut off every 6-8 minutes on a desired temprature of 24-25 degrees. Due to this cut off of compressor, I felt that the quality of air in the room felt very good as long as compressor was running but felt not that good when compressor turns off.
Now life moved 4 months ahead and now I wanted to buy another window ac for my parents room which is also of similar size at around 125-130 sq ft. Based on my experience of my first 1.5 Ton AC and based on the fact that I did not like the cutting off of its compressor every 5-6 minutes, I decided that this time I will go for a 1 Ton machine rather than going for a 1.5 Ton machine. I searched a lot of options and zeroed in on the HITACHI Summer TM 1.1 Ton (13310 BTUs) 5 star model (1240 watts). The shopkeeper kept on insisting me to go for a 1.5 Ton machine but I was sure this time not to follow the shopkeepers advice but to go with 1 Ton machine only based on my research and personal experience. I bought this 1.1 Ton machine on 27-07-2012 for around Rs. 29, 000 (including stabilizer and fitting but excluding transport, mcb, wire charges. NOTE: Summer TM models are costlier than Kaze models which I bought earlier). When I started using this AC from the first day, I immediately got the feeling that I have made a very RIGHT decision to go in for a 1.1 Ton machine instead of a 1.5 Ton machine. The cooling of this AC was as good as (In fact better) than my 4 month old 1.5 Ton machine which uses at least 25% extra electricity (after considering its cut off time) compared to my 1.1 ton machine.
Based on my experience of owning both 1.5 Ton and 1.1 Ton HITACHI Window machines, I list out the reasons to rate 1.1 ton better than 1.5 ton for a room of size upto 150 sq ft.
1) 1 Ton AC will be suitable because most of us normally feel comfortable in a temprature of around 24 degrees.
2) 1 Ton AC will provide even cooling because it will not cut off so soon.
3) 1 Ton AC will last longer because in 1.5 Ton machine the compressor keeps cutting off constantly thereby putting extra load on compressor every time it restarts.
4) Electricity bill will be lower as a 1 Ton machine will consume lesser units (My 1.5 Ton 3 star machine consumes 1.4 units per hour and 1.1 Ton 5 star machine consumes 1.1 units per hour) even considering the fact that it keeps on running constantly for a much longer time compared to 1.5 Ton machine before cutting off.
5) Initial expenditure will be lesser as 1 ton machines are always cheaper than their 1.5 ton counterpart
HOWEVER for those of you who wish to keep the desired room temperature at around 16-18 degrees, 1 ton or 1.1 Ton machine may not be suitable because it will take a much longer time in a room size of around 150 sq ft to reach this temperature. But if you normally keep temperature around 20-25 degrees, I will then no need to go for a 1.5 Ton machine.
If you are still not sure of the right ac size for your room, then as a general rule take suggestions from shopkeepers by telling your room specifications and go for 70% of their suggested size. Say if shopkeeper suggests 2 ton go for 1.5 Ton and if he suggest 1.5 ton go for 1 Tonn or 1.1 Tonn.
I hope you will find this review useful and it will help sort out your confusions.
Amit Sabharwal
