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Hi Everyone. Sudarsan posted a nice comment on how installation of air conditioners. This post is just a recap of the same.

Installing AC

Window AC- Need to have a cut-out for the AC to be installed. Usually Flat builders provide a rectangular opening beneath a window to facilitate this. My advice is to plan on an opening as suggested by the Aircon manufacturer (AC away from the floor would not suck-in the dust near the floor, and more importantly cold air moves towards the floor, while hot air rises up, so having AC above the ground gives better cooling efficiency). Coming back to installation, the space around the AC at the opening, is closed with a plywood frame or alternate materials. Window AC’s need stabilizers depending on the tonnage. Installation expenses would be about Rs.300, plus carpentry/masonry related expenses towards the AC opening.

Split AC – While Split AC gives the flexibility to install at a convenient position in the room, Split AC sales comes with 5m Copper tube only, for additional ducting you would have to pay Rs.400-500/m of copper tube. Indoor units are wall mounted and at about 5-6 feet from the floor. The outdoor unit can be floor or wall mounted and the key efforts in the installation is to have good insulation for the copper piping between the Outdoor and Indoor units. Installation for each split unit ranges from Rs.1000 to Rs.1300.

Nowadays the Voltage stabilizers come as a part of the Split AC package itself, even otherwise stabilizers upto 5 KVA should cost in the range of Rs.1000 to Rs.1500 only.

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I made this write-up over this long weekend….it should be useful if you are planning on air-conditioning your home.

Air Conditioners (ACs) are available in two form-factors,

a. Room AC – This is the traditional AC, where the cost ranges from Rs.8,000 to Rs.35,000 depending on the brand, features and tonnage.    

Image Courtesy : alibaba.com

b. Split AC – Here the Cooling unit (condenser, coil+fan apparatus) are separated from the Room-unit (Blower & Exhaust), thus eliminating noise from the Cooling unit.  More importantly Split AC, allows you to install the AC at the place you require.  Also recent models have a good spacing between exhaust and blower allowing better cooling efficiency on the room.

Image Courtesy : germes-online.com

Having made up my mind on Split AC, I looked into Cooling capacity (measured in BTUs, or in simple language Tonnes), EER (Energy Efficiency Ratio), Fan speed, Filter mechanisms and Noise level. 

For an average Indian bedroom 0.75 Tonne to 1 Tonne should do, and for a hall 1.5 Tonne to 2 Tonnes are required.  For now we wanted to AC only 2 adjacent bedrooms and I was contemplating between,

a. Buying 2 Single-split systems of 1.5 Tonne each – Onida (Rs.24K, for Deco Flat model) & Samsung (Rs.24.5K for Turbo Compact model) which includes everything other than mounting brackets and installation.

b. Buying 1 Multi-split from Hitachi of 2.0 Tonne capacity (Atom2 at Rs.52,000)

 Though popular sales talk is to go for two 1.5 tonnes as it costs lesser than the 2 Tonne Multi-split and gives you the option of 1 unit working in case of machine failure, I opted for the Hitachi Multisplit for two reasons,

a. This system has a single compressor that can supply 2 Tonnes to one bedroom if the other bedroom is not used, this flexibility comes in very handy in Summer.  Also if you have a combo of a hall and a bedroom, its better to go for this system than having two 1.5T single splits.

b. Hitachi’s system comes with proven durability (5 years warranty and I somehow trust compressors Made in Japan than elsewhere) and has the best EER and lowest noise levels.

Anyway I would have considered inverter type air-conditioners (30-40% power savings) and a 5 split AC, as abroad.  But  since these systems are neither popular nor cost effective in India, had gone for Hitachi Atom2 for my bedrooms.

I have personally used so far – Carrier (5 split), General & Hitachi (room AC) and the experience has been very good so far, and hoping the same out of this Hitachi (2 split).

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Digging up some information from Wikipedia I am made to believe that ceiling fan is an American invention. I am not sure about this yet.

Image Courtesy: global-b2b-network.com

Fans (as known widely) are electrical appliances which are used to circulate air within a room. If the temperatures are not too high and if the humidity is in check, fans do their job well of cooling the room.

These appliances are available in both 3 and 4 blade variants. In my personal experience I have only seen the 3 blade version to be widely used in India. The reason is again a mystery to me.

The accompanying device for a Fan is the speed regulator. This device regulates the speed of the fan having some pre-defined settings.

Image Courtesy: cglonline.com

The speed settings are ranging from 0(off) to 5(high speed). Settings 1,2,3 and 4 offer increasing levels of RPM (revolutions per minute).

Essentially regulators like the one shown above reduce/increase the voltage that goes to the fan.

 In the last few years, these ‘resistor” based bulky box regulators are being replaced by electronic, solid state regulators. These are nothing but light dimming switches.

Image Courtesy: Amazon

I have heard that just using dimmer switches to control the speed of the fan is not a good idea and that one should use dedicated electronic fan regulators for this job. The former, I believe delivers too less a voltage for the fan to function properly and can result in damage to the motor of the fan.

The most failing item in a fan which is used excessively is the Capacitor. The first signs of its failure are reduced speed of operation or completely dead fan.

A ball bearing is also used in fan to reduce the friction. Wear and tear in this can produce unwanted noise. So make sure you check these out.

Cleaning fans is probably one the most difficult task at home because it is hard to reach!

We try to cover more details on this in the coming days.

enjoy your Sunday !!

authors

Choosing one:

 Some of the factors you should consider while going in for a home theatre system are: The budget and the room in which you want it installed. Remember it’s ok to have mind blowing sound as long as it doesn’t blow your neighbors brain away. So either soundproof the room or go in for less wattage. If you are brand conscious, then you may go with the brand of your choice. If you just want to experiment with the concept of home theatres, my suggestion (to people living in India) would be Philips as they are cheap and perform pretty well too.

 For people who own a projector, a home theatre is a natural choice as the projectors support only the visuals. For someone owning a TV and isn’t really bothered about the sound quality and clarity, home theatre wouldn’t be a necessity. But then do note that most TVs support stereo at the most. So even if you are to buy an authentic disk, chances are you can’t experience the movie the way the disk manufacturer meant for you to with the TV speakers.

Setting Up The system:

 Once you have bought the system, setting up is the next thing you want to do. Wireless models are available, but you may want to check with the band of frequencies in which they operate as this may interfere with some other appliances. As for the wired ones, the connection itself should be easy as most manufacturers take the pain to even color code the wires to different channels so that people like me and you can set it up. However the acoustics of the room needs to be worked out, and you may want to consult a sound engineer for it. Else just set it up and if it works fine, forget it.

Image Courtesy : www.national-tech.com

 Home theatre systems weren’t all that common say 5 to 10 years back. But all of a sudden middle class homes are inundated with 5.1 surround systems. (Often kept on one table!!) Even my friends PC boasts of a 5.1 surround. So what’s a home theatre system anyway and what’s all the fuss really?

Image Courtesy : onkyo.com

  
 We shall discuss the acoustic side of the home theatre system. (Remember that the article was inspired by a headache in the first place.)  Home theatre systems are supposed to recreate the movie experience at home. Of course you need disks supporting surround sound. (This means multichannel sound). So the mp3 you ripped off the net or the divx movie that you just finished downloading or that DVD you bought near the pavement wont work the same way a authentic DVD (or a proper copy of that) works.

Popular Channel Profiles:

 5.1 is not the only format, but definitely the most popular of the lot with two front, two rear speakers, one central speaker and one sub-woofer. 6.1 is available which has a rear central speaker as well. 2.1 systems are also prevalent. The ones from BOSE claim to be better than most 5.1s (and expensive too.) Each has its own way of decoding the sound and sending them to the different speakers. This needs what we commonly refer to as the amplifier system, No need to bother, it comes packaged with the speakers. 2.1s are also popularly available for PCs from manufacturers like Logitech, though these lack the associated electronics (amplifier).

Sound Formats:

Some of the popular sound formats include mono, stereo (I suggest the song “bang bang” by ‘Nancy Sinatra’ to fully appreciate the effect of stereo format), Dolby, Dolby Digital DTS…Etc. In the multichannel format, the sound for each channel is recorded separately and based on the band of the frequencies is played back by the appropriate speaker.
 
 

Image Courtesy: http://www.indiainfoline.com

To most Indians, the concept of vacuum cleaner never really is appealing. I wouldn’t attribute this to any reason but lack of awareness. To most of us, the ideal cleaning aid is a broom stick and a small plastic tray to pick up the dust. This is considered inexpensive and practial.

Most of us gathered awareness to this product at one point or another by a visiting salesman, probably from Eureka forbes. They show you the usual trained demonstrations of sucking coins (to show its power), cleaning ability of cob webs and so on…..Its their job.

 Now, let me tell you from my experience, why this gadget still is not very popular in our country. The first reason I can think of is cost, but companies are offering EMI like facilities at extremely low interest rates. But the biggest stumbling block is the utility factor of this device.

In my case, when we purchased the cleaner, for the next few weeks, it was simply indispensable. We cleaned pratically everything with it. But today, it is hardly used at all. What more, the attachements which make it ever more powerful are actually missing! (some of them atleast).

Do you feel, “Hey, this is the exact same problem with our home too !”. Well time for some analysis and how we can avoid this.

a) Vacuuming if done regularly (does not mean everyday) can be actually a good thing. What we do is that , although we purchase it, we use it as an add-on to our traditional broom.

Little do all of us realize, that the broom method actually does more harm then good. In the attempt to draw dust and rubbish to one corner of the room, one actually creates a disturbance and ends up spreading the dust on items like your phone, your pc and what not. And no, turning off the fan while sweeping the floor is not going to help much.

And what do we do after 3 weeks, we try to clean the accumalated dust on our TV, fridge and PC with the Vacuum cleaner. Clearly the dust has been stationary for 3 weeks with oil fumes, moisture from air and what not…..So how do we expect the machine to actually suck all the dust which you help spread in the first place? This leads to frustration and in the corner of your mind, you think of using the cleaner lesser than before.

b) Chord length: Most vacuum cleaners come with upto 5 meters of electrical chord. This is fairly ok, but being lazy to switch the socket leads us to believe that the chord is always a tad too short. And remember, most vaccum cleaners require heavy power. So I recommend that you use a 15A socket and not a 5A socket for the same. This could lead to your fuse blowing/tripping.

c) Incorrect usage: I admit, no one is perfect. We all tend to misuse our gadgets and this one is no exception. Perhaps one of the other reasons why people put their vacuum cleaners off (almost for good) is that it did something which they didnt expect it to in the first place. Remember, there are only a few speed settings on these machines, so please do not use them on delicate machines like TV, home threatres, DVD players and so on. You might end up damaging them. Similarly, keep vacuum cleaners away from pins, jewellry, medicines and other small object like keys/coins.

d) Blower setting: The salesman would have told you, if you have a lot of dust, it makes sense to blow them all to the corner of the room and then suck them in. Trust me , this is the most dumb thing you could ever do. Use the blower for settings which it is intended for. E.G.

• Car washing
• Spraying water for plants

Seriously, more than this I cannot think of anything else.

 At this point I dont know what are the offerings in the market, but I can think of the following points which you should check before you buy a vacuum cleaner for your home.

• Company/Brand and warranty information
• Voltage and power requirements
• Type of dust bag used ( how many are offered free and what is the cost if you need more in future)
• Dust bag capacity – this determines how often you need to empty it
• Suction power – Determined by the motor used. the more the merrier
• Accessories – Should have an assortment of meaningful accessories. Not mindless pieces to add to marketing – “comes with 99 attachements”
• Flexible tube strength – this is the first thing which cracks or leaks as we tend to pull the machine by it
• overall weight of the machine and chord length
• regulatory approvals like BIS or equivalent

 Some tips to improve your vacuuming experience.

• Empty the dust bag outside your home. It has fine dust particles which maybe injurious to people with respiratory problems. Also if you suspect that you have accidently vacuumed a live object, we suggest you dispose the bad as soon as possible.
• avoid bag reuse if possible – old bags somehow clog the system and decreases the suction power of the machine
• Unless your machine supports both wet and dry types, KEEP IT AWAY FROM WATER
• Avoid operating the machine with wet hands/legs to prevent shock hazards
• Use periodically and see how simple it is over a broom/mop
• Use regularly on beds/sofas to remove fine dust particle. this also keeps bad smell away

Did you know

- Small handheld vacuum cleaners are available for your PC keyboards and other such electronic appliances ? They can also be used in kitchen and very light and handy

- Some vacuum cleaners have wet and dry option. Check these out

- There are dedicated vacuum cleaners for car. Now removing the mud from your car carpet is very easy to do!

Last tip before signing off on this artilce – while planning your home, please allocate a separate space in your storage cabinet for this wonderful device and its accessories. That way it feels belonged and you would end up using it even more.

 I hope you like this article. If you could rate it or comment on it, it would be of great help. If I have missed on something, please feel free to comment.

happy cleaning

Vivek

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The conventional tv is CRT (cathode ray tube). Over the last few years there has been a steady fall in prices of higher screen size televisions because their market demand is less. Anyway, the CRT tv is still masses choice. There are two offerings as far as the screen is considered. the rounded screen and the flat screen. The later offers distortion free viewing from all angles.

Recently some manufacturers claim to have reduced the size of the CRT tv by around 40% because of advancements made in the field of CRT itself. The offer higher appeal value.

The next contendor for tv space is the LCD tv (Liquid crystal display). We are not elaborating on the technology of the tv here, but the are really slim and usually are wall mounted offering more real estate space in one’s living room. Prices are falling steadily, so if you can squeeze on into your budget, look no further.

 LCD tv has a competition from Plasma tv which is similar in shape although plasma tv starts at around 40″ and above. These are comparitively cheaper given the same screen size. They offer good color clarity especially tones of black. They are slightly bulkier though.

this rounds up this article on the types of TV out there in the market. Hope you found it useful.

a) Entertaintment – hence you have your TV/DVD players/Home theatres here

b) Reception – i.e. you receive your guests, family and friends here….

Image Courtesy: http://www.electronichouse.com

Keeping these two factors in mind, a family usually populates the living room with the required accessories. Flavors may vary from one family to another, but the core is more or less the same.

In the coming posts we discuss the various elements which would go into the living room. We encourage comments and queries. So make use of the commenting feature.