A recent article on a fire break-out incident in a commercial complex at Anna Salai, Chennai – once again brought into our attention the risks that Air Conditioners pose in our households, offices and commercial buildings – if no safety measures are adopted.
As per the statistics from the Tamil Nadu Fire Department, around 20% of electrical fires happen with air conditioners. Most of these incidents occur late at night or early in the morning when the ACs are overworked. According to Delhi Fire Service, about 60% fires are of electric origin on account of electric short circuit, overheating, over loading. It can lead to serious fire and fatal accidents, if proper instructions not followed.
Fire can break out due to a short circuit which can happen in any electrical appliance. But fires sparked by Air Conditioner are the most prevalent more than any other electrical appliance.
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On average, in India, every year, about 25,000 persons die due to fires and related causes. Given that fire due to AC is one of the top reasons for these accidents, deaths due to the same is definitely not a small number to ignore. Added to the deaths is the significant loss of property that results from such fires.
Before we analyse to see how this issue can be addressed, lets try to investigate the problem a bit more in-depth.
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How do ACs cause fire accidents?
Fires caused by air conditioner units most often happen at the cord. The reason is that the cords overheat due to unit drawing too much current. High current draw is most often caused by a dirty condenser (outdoor coils). As dirt is blown through the coils with the air that cools them it slowly builds up on the coils. Eventually the buildup clogs the coils.
Due to this clogging, the pressure inside the system rises, causing the compressor to work harder to do its job. In working harder the current draw increases until it exceeds the current rating for the cord being used. The copper wire will then act like a heating element getting hotter and hotter. The easiest way to tell if this is happening is to feel the cord.
Some of the recent fire accidents due to Ac in India. Click on the images to read the complete article
How to prevent such fire accidents?
As you can see, overworking of compressor is the root cause of the problem.
Majority of the air-conditioning systems are designed to keep the compressor ON, until it reaches one degree below (-1) the SET temperature and then resumes again once it goes above one degree (+1) .
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In every system, compressors are designed to run at full capacity irrespective of the room’s temperature. Initially this is fine, but significant energy is wasted even after the space is partially cooled.
When functional hours of compressor are reduced, automatically current draw is reduced and hence can prevent fire accidents, largely. But it is not practical for manual monitoring of the compressor and keep switching your AC on and off all the time.
This is why you may need an intelligent device to do this job.
[dropshadowbox align=”none” effect=”lifted-both” width=”100%” height=”” background_color=”#ffffff” border_width=”1″ border_color=”#dddddd” ]What if there is a plug and play device, which through an ingenious mechanism, can switch your AC on and off optimally, resulting in energy savings as well as keeping the compressor healthy and preventing fire accidents?[/dropshadowbox]
Does it sound too good to be true?
Well, it is true and yes, there exists such a safety-cum-energy-savings device.
ASSET – an innovative product by Analog Nanotech – is a smart meter that can be fixed along with any type of Air Conditioners as an external unit – which will monitor the AC’s performance to identify any faults that are present and that can occur in the near future and also help in huge energy savings.
It is a simple device that has a neat display which shows the above characteristics of AC in simple language. You don’t have to make any alterations to your existing AC setup. The system is completely external, and hence you need not worry about the AC’s warranty terms.
Analog Electronics, through ASSET, has helped numerous industries to streamline and monitor ACs, ensuring not only significant savings and safer ACs.
The Indian Railways and several banks have benefited by installing ASSET monitoring system.
Avoid FIRE accidents due to your Air Conditioning systems, check out ASSET.
Interested in knowing more about how ASSET can
cut down your AC power costs?
Send a note to ravi@solarmango.com or call Senthil 8056028482
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Also check out: Sustainability Edge – EAI Consulting to assist corporates design, evaluate and align sustainability strategies
