Specifications you should check in your Air Conditioner before buying it

Air conditioner is one of the most costly and yet most widely used electronic appliance allover the world, simply because it is inevitable for your comfort. Though it is quite an important device, would you like to spend your hard-earned dollars behind repair and service of an air conditioner just due to lack of awareness when you brought it?

A bit of awareness about what you are buying before spending your money on your air conditioner will help you save many more in future and stay in more comfort at the same time. Here are 9 most important features you should checkout in air conditioner before you buy it.

• Energy efficiency

  EER (energy efficiency ratio) is ratio of air conditioner's cooling capacity in British Thermal Units per hour to the electrical input it consumes in Watts under specific testing conditions. Ideally it should be more than 10. The higher the EER, the less the air conditioner will cost to operate.

Ensure that the air conditioner is Energy star certified as it will save roughly 30% of more energy compared to non-certified ones.

• Dimensions

  Depending upon purpose of usage and available room space, you should checkout the stores for available AC dimensions. Especially when you are choosing window AC, don't forget to review height, width, depth and net weight for indoor and outdoor portions of the air conditioner.

• Function

  Check whether the air conditioner you want to buy performs both heating and cooling or just one of them.

• Cooling capacity

  Cooling capacity of an AC is measured in 'ton'. 1 ton usually means 12,000 Btu per hour. Both oversized and undersized air conditioners are not good for air conditioning your room space. That is because oversized ACs won't cool the room uniformly and perform dehumidifying properly, while, on the other hand, undersized AC will not be able to cool your room upto your degree of comfort.

Typically common purpose air conditioning needs 20 Btu per square feet of your room space. So if your room space is 600 square feet, it means 12,000 Btu per hour i.e “1 ton” AC is ideal for selected room. However, apart from room size you should also take factors like room height, climate, window size etc into account.

• Control

  Checkout whether your chosen air conditioner provides only embedded control (like rotary control or digital display) or remote control too.

• Refrigerant

  Choose Air conditioners with R410A refrigerant. Though you will also get air conditioners based on R-22 and other HCFC refrigerants, R410A are in-trend as they are more environment friendly. This will save you from future hassles when you may need to repair your system.

• Filters

  Checkout types of filters embodied within system. There may be one or more type of filters included within your air conditioning system including active-carbon filter, anti-bacteria filter, anti-dust filter or Catechin filter.

• Active-carbon filter removes contaminants and impurities using process of chemical adsorption,

• Anti-bacteria filter disinfects the air from bacteria,

• Anti-dust filter removes dust particles from air &

• Anti-catechin filter absorbs odor and allergens from air.

Though these filters are not necessary for proper working of your air conditioners, they have a lot to offer for your hygiene and health.

• Available modes

  Checkout for available preset modes in your air conditioning system if you don't understand it so much that you can set ideal configuration yourself. Many air conditioners are available with preset modes like dry, cool, turbo, sleep etc.

• Warranty

  Money matters. Check out the warranty span before buying an air conditioner. No matter whatever brand AC you purchase you will have to face repairing sometime. Longer warranty plainly means less cost in long terms, Take failure possibilities, usage and net price into account before choosing between two air conditioners with different warranty span. Also check whether warranty is applied on labor, physical damage, moving parts etc or not.

Along with all these 9 main features, you should also check out some other features in AC as per your requirements like,

• Auto defrost

• Auto restart

• Air flow direction: is it two way, three way or four way air conditioner?

• Programmable or delay start:if you want automatic cooling before you reach home.

While purchasing a new AC, a bit of awareness can save you from major future issues with your air conditioner, so Riley Heat and Air, being expert in HVAC, suggests you to share this post with your friends and colleagues too. It might also save them from purchasing an AC that might not be the exact one for them.