As Qatar moves towards environment friendly and energy efficient air conditioning units, a new technology is becoming popular in the country. Variable refrigerant flow or volume (VRV/VRF) air conditioning system is continuing to make inroads into both the residential and commercial sectors, according to experts.
VRF system is the latest technology in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning. This system consists of one outdoor unit with many indoor units, refrigerant piping, running from the outdoor to all indoors and communication wiring.
The system can be used for variable load hence, every space can be have its own temperature controls.
“VRF system has been around for some time, however, the popularity is now growing more than ever. It uses the new eco-friendly gases,” Shoukathali, GM, Marine Air Conditioning Company, told The Peninsula.
“It has digital control system connected to a number of internal units, which also have individual control facility. Currently a number of residential buildings and major projects are utilising the system. With higher demand, the prices also have fallen from an earlier QR4,500 to less than QR3,000,” he added.
VRF air-conditioning systems are cost-effective to install, easy to use and economical to operate throughout the entire life of the equipment. The compact design and flexible layout in terms of outdoor to indoor units are the added benefits leading to its adoption in commercial as well as residential air conditioning systems.
“The system has started to become popular and more people have started asking about it and many more projects here utilise VRF. The main advantage is that it facilitates mix and use of indoor units. People can opt for wall units, duct split, casket type and so on according to their own tastes,” said Azhar Maqbool Ahmed, Deputy GM, Alrais Group.
“One of major advantage of the system is the fact that the energy efficiency of these appliances are usually higher the current. The units are 13 and above star rated,” he added.
Another key attraction for customers of the system is that it requires lesser rooftop equipment than the conventional central cooling system.
Also they get much to gain in terms of efficiency and dependability. The system also has inverter compressors that allow lowering power consumption with partial cooling loads. More over the system has an ability of modular expansion, hence can be used for large projects, that can grow in stages.
“The demand for VRF system is starting and popularity has been growing over the last few years. Most attractive part is the number of indoor units that can be attached to it,” said an official of a major appliances company.
