Are energy saving VRV residential central air conditioning systems worth the money?

by Amili R. SEO

VRV systems deliver long-term savings, so the higher upfront cost may be worth it — especially for facilities with varied heating and cooling loads or organizations pursuing a green building certification.

While there are a plethora of choices out there when it comes to choosing air conditioning systems, none can deliver home comfort quite like a central air conditioner on those hot and humid summer days. A central AC unit circulates cool air, reduces humidity and even improves the overall air quality of your home. Moreover, the importance of an HVAC system or a VRV HVAC system in commercial and residential buildings cannot be overemphasized. This technology circulates only the minimum amount of refrigerant needed at any one time and thus enables individual climate control of air conditioning zones. The name VRV is derived from the Variable Refrigerant Volume technology. There are a few key things to look for when you’re buying a new energy-efficient air conditioner that will help keep your energy bill—and the temperature in your home—low.

1. Programmable temperature settings: These days, even basic window units come with digital displays so that you can set a precise temperature and even schedule your A/C to turn off when you’ll be out and back on when you’re coming home. VRV central air conditioning systems are even more flexible.

2. Energy-saving setting: Air conditioners nowadays have an energy-saving setting, which means that the unit will turn off not only the compressor but also the fan once your space has cooled off, and will thus, save energy.

3. Wifi-enabled A/C: If you’ve begun to experiment with making your home smart—if you have a device like Alexa or Google Assistant, for example, or a wifi-enabled thermostat that you can adjust with your smartphone—consider installing a smart air conditioner. VRV systems come with a plethora of such features and more.

Two formats dominate VRV residential central air conditioning systems — heat recovery and heat pump.

Heat recovery system VRVs:

• Heat recovery VRVs can be either two pipe or three pipe systems and have the ability to heat certain zones while cooling others.

• They use a two-pipe system featuring a branch circuit controller to the individual indoor evaporator zones. The heat extracted from zones needing cooling is then applied to zones needing heating. Other manufacturers use a three-pipe system to accomplish the same function.

Heat pump VRV systems:

• Heat pump VRVs typically are two-pipe systems that operate similarly to the heat-recovery system, but lack the flexibility of meeting both cooling and heating needs.

All zones must be either cooling or heating

• While this increases overall energy consumption of the facility, the installed cost is lower, and the system and its control valves are less complex, resulting in lower maintenance costs long term