9 out of 10 star-rated ceiling fans fail air delivery test

Moneylife Digital Team 14 June 2016

Consumer Interest

Nine out of the 10 five-star rated brands of ceiling fans in India that were tested did not meet the requirement of BEE on air delivery- the key performance parameter, says Consumer Voice in a report.

Consumer Voice, a voluntary organisation working towards consumer education, did a comparative study of ceiling fans to find the ones with the best energy efficiency. “Ceiling fans are a pretty generic product and spending time and resources to compare does seem like a bit of a waste. However when we take into perspective the millions of ceiling fans being sold annually in India, the amount of electrical energy being consumed and the potential savings in electrical energy that can be realised, the study seems quite justified,” it said.

The key points of the study were that the lesser known brand, Lazer, emerged as the top performer, followed by Usha and Marc. Lazer is also the value for money brand. All brands however, met the requirements of Indian standards. Air delivery was found to be less than 210m/3minutes except in the case of Lazer. In order to qualify for BEE’s star rating, it is required that air delivery be not less than 210m/ 3minutes. Higher the air delivery, better the breeze.

As per the test results, only Lazer met the requirements of a five star rating in terms of service value (4.46) , power consumption (48.88 Watts) and air delivery (210/3minutes). It may be noted that higher the service value, better the energy efficiency and air delivered. Also lower the power input, lesser the electricity bill. All the brands passed in the service value test. All the brands were found to be energy efficient, consuming between 48.88 watts and 51.25 watts, Consumer Voice said.

It says, only two brands, Lazer and V-Guard had the ISI mark, however, while both met the requirements of Indian Standards, V-Guard did not meet BEE’s requirements for a five star rating in terms of air delivery. “None of the 10 brands provided a standard speed regulator compatible with the fan, often leading to the usage of sub-standard regulators by users and thereby possibly affecting the fan’s performance,” it added.

According to the study, Orient was the heaviest at 3.586kg; V-Guard weighed the least at only 2.936kg (motor with blades). The sections the fans were tested on air delivery, service value, power input, starting and running and speed. All the Ceiling fans provided complete marking information. However, Havells, Khaitan, Marc, Crompton Greaves and Orient did not come with an instruction manual. All the ceiling fans were packed in hard carton boxes with thermocol or cardboard supports.

Consumer Voice’s recommendations is that Indian manufacturers need to put in extra efforts to improve air delivery and service value in order to enable consumers to realise optimal energy savings. Overall, only one brand, Lazer, qualified for BEE’s five-star rating. The remaining nine were found lower on air delivery. “There is scope for making ‘super-efficient’ fans by bringing down input power by 5% to 10%. A regulator should be capable of reducing the speed of the fan to at least 50%,” it added.

Consumer Voice is a voluntary action group, consisting of academicians, professionals and volunteers channelising their energies towards creating informed consumers. You can subscriber to their magazine here.

Comments