Hyderabad: Manufacturers of cheap ceiling fans and air coolers are thriving in the season as demand is rising sooner than expected due to the early summer. Most manufacturers use cheap capacitors and aluminium winding in motors and regulators which consume more power.
As per the norms issued by the Bureau of Indian Standards, manufacturers must use components having low power consumption in fans. Components used in the manufacturing of fans should also have BIS standards.
The Centre has made it mandatory for several electrical appliances to have the ISI mark. Ceiling fans and fan motors used in air coolers were not added to the list.
The BIS has given licences to only 10 fan companies in Telangana and one for making fan motors for air coolers. The Micro Small & Medium Enterprises has given approvals to 152 fan and cooler-fan manufacturers.
Besides this, nearly 300 cooler manufacturing units and 900 fan manufacturing centres are illegally functioning in Kukatpally, Balanagar, Sanathnagar, Fathenagar and Katedan.
Most of the manufacturers running illegal units and those under MSME don’t follow standards. They use aluminium wire for motor winding instead of copper. BIS scientist-C Sattu Savitha said that aluminium winding consumes more power than copper.
“The performance of fans with aluminium motor winding is poorer than those with copper winding,” she said. BIS director M.V.S.D. Prasada Rao said that several tests were done for fans before giving it the ISI mark.
“After passing all tests, fan manufacturers or those making fan motors for air coolers will be given ISI licence. We randomly pick fans at the manufacturing units during tests and check the standards including the strength of the fan’s body by dropping it from at least 10 inches height. Motor winding, capacitor, spares utilised in the fan and other aspects are covered in the test,” he said.
Non-ISI manufacturers merely test whether the fan works or not. Aluminium winding in fan motors keeps the power consumed at 150W to 200W per hour. A similar fan or cooler-motor with BIS standards will consume 70W to 90W power per hour.
While fans with BIS standards take around 13 hours to consume a unit of power, the non-ISI fans consume one unit of power in 6 hours. Non-ISI standard fans are available in the market for Rs 250 to Rs 850. Fans with ISI standards are available for Rs 1,200 and up in the market.
