Voltas’ smart engineering has enabled it to cater to your air conditioning needs, be it at home, offices, or industrial and commercial units, write Deba Ghoshal and K P Sukumar.

 Deba Ghoshal is the Vice President, Marketing, UPBG, Voltas Limited, and K P Sukumar is the Senior GM, Domestic Projects Group, Voltas Limited. 

According to a report by Techsci Research, India’s air-conditioners market stood at over $4.3-billion in 2017 and has been expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 12 per cent. Voltas is the undisputed market leader in the Room AC (RAC) market in India with over 24 per cent market share, as per third party retail audit reports.

The company is a premier air-conditioning and engineering solutions provider, and a Projects specialist that was founded in India in 1954. A part of the Tata Group, in addition to Air-conditioners, Air Coolers, Water Dispensers, Water Coolers, and Commercial Refrigeration products, Voltas offers engineering solutions for a wide spectrum of industries in areas such as heating, ventilation and air-conditioning, refrigeration, electro-mechanical projects, electrification, water management and treatment, cold chain solutions, building management systems, indoor air quality, textile machinery, and mining and construction equipment.

With over 15,000 touch points in its RAC business, Voltas has been known for its customer centricity. In a constant attempt to build a direct association with the consumers, the brand designs its products keeping the customer requirements at its core. This has led the brand to constantly reinvent its products to keep in sync with the trends and, thereby, has a lot of firsts to its name.

Voltas launched India’s first Air-conditioner in 1954, the first split AC in 1984, first floor standing AC in 1993, and first sub-one ton AC in 2000. The Company was a pioneer to introduce India’s first star rated Air-conditioners in 2007, before it was made mandatory by BEE for the industry.

In 2012, Voltas ‘de-seasonalised’ the AC category with the introduction of India’s first ‘All Weather’ AC, and in 2016, the company launched the ‘All Star Smart Inverter AC’, followed by India’s first Window Inverter ACs in 2018.

Some of the instrumental technological advancements made by the company over the past year include the launch of Smart ACs that can be controlled using simple voice commands with Amazon Echo or other Alexa-enabled smart speakers, and includes the Voltas Inverter Split AC and Voltas Split AC. This feature allows customers to be able to turn their AC on and off and change the temperature, hands-free, by simply saying “Alexa, turn on the AC”, or “Alexa, set AC to 23 degrees”. Additionally, the AC can also be controlled through the Voltas Smart AC App for smartphones over a wi-fi connection.

Today, the focus has shifted globally to Inverter ACs, a technology that is the latest energy efficient technology in the field of Air-conditioners. In many countries, government regulations and energy-saving bene?ts have led to the rapid shift towards this type of air-conditioning. In fact, this category contributed about 63 per cent to overall global sales in 2016.

Voltas, one of the pioneers in creating energy efficient ACs, has its Voltas All Star Inverter AC portfolio that comes with R401A refrigerant. This green refrigerant requires more durable AC parts, which reduces the risk of the system overheating and breaking down.

Voltas has also won the prestigious National Energy Conservation Award, from the Ministry of Power, in the year 2013, 2015 and 2018.

Voltas, today, is not only the No. 1 player in the RAC market but is also the market leader in HVAC business and is a preferred EPC contractor across infrastructure, electrification and water management sectors. According to industry reports, the Indian HVAC market is likely to cross $7.00-billion by 2022. It has been predicted that infrastructure-based developments, technological progressions and growing tourism will have a positive influence in the coming five years.

Additionally, the extreme climatic conditions, rising disposable incomes and escalating developments in both commercial and residential real estate sectors together with various government initiatives will help further.

Through its Domestic Projects Group, which looks after its HVAC installations within the country, Voltas has been a part of instrumental projects, such as tunnel ventilation, and air-conditioning for the Metro lines in New Delhi, Chennai and Kolkata; and air-conditioning for Airports in Hyderabad, Delhi, and Kolkata. It has also successfully partnered with Tata Memorial Hospital and Saifee Hospital and various corporate institutions, such as TCS Siruseri in Chennai and Dell Whitefield in Bengaluru, to set up the HVAC installations.

Voltas has also worked on The Indira Gandhi Paryavaran Bhawan. This building is a centrally air-conditioned office housing the Ministry of Environment and Forest located at Aliganj, New Delhi and is the first ‘Net Zero’ building in India with ‘LEED Platinum’ certification and GRIHA Five Star certification for exemplary demonstration of Renewable Technologies.

The entire electrical consumption of the property is around 14 lakhs KWH in a year, which otherwise would have been around 22 lakhs KWH required for a similar building using conventional engineering design and material. What is further unique about this property is that this amount of energy being used is generated through a solar cell making it a net zero building.

With an enriched Industrial experience, Voltas offers a state-of-the-art manufactured range of HVAC equipment, including a wide range of Chillers and Condensing units, with Water cooled and Air cooled options with variety of (Low/Medium) temperature range up to 70 degree C.

The company has a varied range and makes of Screw Compressors with single and twin screw arrangements and with required fittings. The company also offers Vapour Absorption Machines (VAMs) of Lithium bromide – water type – that are indigenously manufactured with state-of-the-art Paraflow Technology, which focuses on reliability and efficiency. It can be operated with variety of heat sources like Steam, hot water, oil, gas, exhaust gas combination. These are extensively used in wide variety of industrial and commercial buildings for air-conditioning amongst others.

With a steadfast commitment to grow and innovate with the changing times, Voltas has proved to be a leader in the Indian HVAC industry. With an aim to provide the most efficient cooling solutions to its customers, Voltas is dedicated to grow in terms of its products and reach.

As a market leader, Voltas constantly strives to be a pioneer in environmentally safe cooling and customer relevant products and, thereby, help the industry move in the same direction.

 Exceeding customer expectations 

VOLTAS introduces industry’s first, Adjustable Inverter AC range, with the unique value proposition of Flexible Air Conditioning.

• Augments its product portfolio, with the introduction of its 2019 range of Cooling Products.

• Strengthens its offerings in Air Coolers and Commercial Refrigeration Products.

   

  Voltas has further strengthened its leadership position in the Cooling Products space, by launching its new range of Voltas Adjustable Inverter ACs. Voltas’ Adjustable Inverter ACs come with the unique value proposition of ‘Flexible Air-conditioning’ that allows the user to switch from 1.5 Ton to 1.0 Ton capacity – and vice versa – depending on the ambient heat or number of people in the room, thereby leading to savings and optimization of running cost.

  Says Pradeep Bakshi, Managing Director and CEO, Voltas Limited said, “Our new range of Adjustable Inverter ACs compliments the consumer’s need for convenience, along with savings. With this launch, we have further enhanced the technology quotient in our products, to exceed customer expectations.”

  Voltas’ new range of ACs is also coupled with unique and exciting promotional offers for consumers:

• Lifetime Inverter Compressor Warranty (Lifetime warranty is restricted to the life of the product, which is 10 years as per the E-waste Rules).

• 5-Year Comprehensive Warranty.

• Attractive Cash back through credit cards.

• 0 per cent Consumer Finance through NBFCs.

  The overall Voltas 2019 AC product range includes over 100 SKUs, with 39 SKUs in Inverter ACs, 26 in Split ACs, and 32 in Window ACs, besides Cassette and Tower ACs. The Company has also launched 39 new SKUs of its Voltas Fresh Air Coolers with Smart Humidity Controller, under various sub-categories, such as Personal, Window, Tower and Desert Air Coolers.

  The Company also strengthened its overall portfolio by introducing 43 SKUs of Commercial Refrigeration products, including Convertible Freezer, Freezer on Wheel, and Curved Glass Freezer.