Energy-Efficient Inverter Air Conditioners for the World

Besides heat pumps, the inverter is another Daikin technology helping to prevent global warming. In an inverter air conditioner, the motor's rotation is variably controlled to save about 30% of electricity compared with a conventional air conditioner. Replacing all the non-inverter air conditioners in the world with inverter air conditioners would dramatically reduce the amount of electricity consumed.

Although most of the air conditioners in Japan are inverter models, in other countries their coverage is a little less than 10%. Daikin aims to expand the world market for inverter air conditioners and reduce the amount of CO2 emissions that result from air conditioning use.

With China's economic growth accompanied by serious electricity shortages and environmental problems, the country is welcoming inverter air conditioners as an effective way to ease the rapid increase in energy consumption. But inverter air conditioners are luxury products in China with few average households owning them.

In March 2008, we made an alliance with major Chinese air conditioner manufacturer Gree Electric Appliance Ltd., with the aim of making affordable products for general households. Inverter models account for only about 7% of all products in China, but increasing the penetration rate with these inexpensive models would offer the Chinese people environmentally friendly comfort and contribute to the country's sustainable growth.

Air Conditioners for Commercial Facilities in the United States

In October 2006, Daikin acquired O.Y.L. Industries, the parent company of major U.S. central heating company McQuay International. This marked the start of our full-scale entry into the U.S. market.

Currently, the most prevalent type of air conditioning in the United States is central heating in which a large air conditioner sends cool and warm air via ducts to a number of different rooms simultaneously. Although central heating offers centralized control, it also wastes air conditioning by sending air to rooms not currently in use. The VRV III developed by Daikin, on the other hand, is known as an energy-efficient system that air conditions only those rooms that require it. But this is still an unfamiliar concept in the United States, which is why we are trying to bring the VRV to market in unique ways. We are also working with McQuay to improve energy efficiency by fitting central heating systems with inverters and combine these with the VRV III system to meet user needs and specific building characteristics.

As the air conditioning leader in Japan, Europe, and China, Daikin has a responsibility to constantly make air conditioning even better. It is crucial that we spread the use of heat pump and inverter technologies to make people's lives more comfortable with minimal environmental impact.