Visakhapatnam: Soaring temperatures may be throwing normal life out of gear here, but rising sales of air conditioners (ACs) last week, unlike other years, has given traders something to smile about.
The distributors of Voltas and Samsung brands say that they have been selling about 50-60 units a month since March and are expecting to see a further rise in numbers if the weather turned more sultry in the coming days. “ACs equipped with new technologies are consuming less power.
With more people from the middle classes going in for them, it is turning out to be an essential electronic appliance in homes,” says Satish, an employee with an AC distributor unit. Besides first-time customers, those buying more than one unit are also contributing to the increased sales, what with office-goers accustomed to spending about 9 to 10 hours in air-conditioned offices and finding it difficult without it at home, he adds.
New offices, industries and the real estate boom have also led to the rise in sales of ACs. Environmentalists, however, opine that people should use ACs only moderately rather than throughout the day. Hydroflourocarbons (HFC) are being used as refrigerants by some manufacturers as a replacement for ozone-depleting substances, like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) and hydro chloro fluoro carbons (HCFCs), after an international treaty to protect the ozone layer has been in place.
It has zero ozone-depleting potential, but high global warming potential. Many are arguing for a direct transition from HCFCs to hydrocarbon-based technology.
