Panasonic AC tackles both heat and dust

29th April 2019
Panasonic  AC tackles  both heat and dust

The Advance series of Panasonic air conditioners,  do double duty as air purifiers, even when the cooling is switched off
Bangalore, April 292019: It is a sad fact of urban life, that so many Indian cities share the notoriety of being listed among the world's  20 most air-polluted places. Increasingly,  families -- especially those with very young or very old members, the most susceptible -- are having to invest in an indoor air purifier. 
And many of these same cities also experience severe summers -- which  forces even middle-income home owners to install an air conditioner, in at least one room. These two investments can  be formidable -- which is why a trend, seen this summer,  will be welcome news for city dwellers battling the twin challenges of dust and heat: air conditioners  which also perform an air-purifying function.
We got to try out an early exemplar of this double-duty domestic device: Japan-headquartered Panasonic's  Advance series of 2019 air conditioners.  Available in 1, 1.2,1.5 and 2 ton,  the aircons  come with Panasonic's proprietary Nanoe technology.
A small unit inside the filter section of the split AC's indoor, called nanoe-G, releases  negative ions  that hover around the unit. They attract oppositely charged dust and bacteria, suck them into the filter where they are deactivated.
The company claims that in addition to viruses  and bacteria, the nanoe-G unit also neutralises  99% of all the dust  and smoke  rated as PM  2.5 ( for Particulate Matter), that is  matter that is  2.5 micrometers in  size. Just to get an idea, a human hair (which also, the AC filters)  is  50 micrometers in diameter. In another  neat feature,  you can use the unit as an air purifier even when you don't need the cooling... which is useful in winter.
In its cooling function the Advance series air conditioners feature a small but useful tweak: once the desired cooling is achieved, the blades are directed towards the roof,  so that people in the room  experience an even, shower-like effect.  Like most new-age aircons, this works on the inverter mode -- ie, the compressor  can vary its speed to  maintain the cooling instead of switching  on and off from a single speed. As a result,  power consumption is lower -- and the unit works very silently.
The Panasonic Advance range is priced from approximately Rs 40,000 to Rs  55,000 -- but we saw significant discounts at  online sites. Amazon also offers a useful guide explaining things like star ratings so that you can  make the right selection.
When you consider you  are saving the added cost of  both an air purifier and a stabiliser (this AC works from 145 to 285 volts ), the deal  tends to look even better .  Anand Parthasarathy