Fourteen years ago, the Hanoi Towers at 49 Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi had Air Handling Units (AHUs) installed for the 13-storey tower consisting of office and shopping space, and Inverter Multi Systems installed for the 25-storey apartment tower. At that time, AHUs and Inverter Multi Systems were modern technologies.

Now, in circumstances when new-generation, smart air conditioning technologies have been created, the investor of the Hanoi Towers has decided to spend more than US$1 million to change the technology at the towers. Nguyen Quoc Khanh, the technical manager of the Hanoi Tower Company Limited, which manages the Hanoi Towers, said, “The investor of the Hanoi Towers has spent more than US$500,000 to replace all the old-generation multi-split type air conditioners that have no inverter and use R22 gas with multi inverter air conditioners using R410A gas at 185 apartments of the 25-storey tower.

The old-generation air conditioners that use R22 gas such as AHUs in the office tower are also replaced with VRV (Variable Refrigerant Volume) air conditioning units using R410A gas. Total expenditure is estimated at more than US$1 million. The new air conditioning technology allows us to reduce electricity consumption by about 35-40 percent compared with using the old technology and obtain the ISO 14001 certification for better contributions to environmental protection.”

The 25-storey Packexim 1 apartment building in Phu Thuong ward, Tay Ho district, Hanoi, is under construction. The investor of this project is aware of the need to apply modern technology to save power. All the six lifts in this building have permanent magnet engines to consume less power. Nguyen Quyet Thang, the general director of the Packaging Production and Import Export Joint Stock Company, the investor of the Packexim 1 apartment building, said that he has decided to install inverter multi split air conditioners for nearly 200 apartments in the building.

Mr. Thang said, “I consider this a way to make the apartments more attractive. Though the cost of investment in new-generation air conditioners is 69 percent higher than investing in normal types of air conditioners, users will be able to save 40 percent of power consumption every month - and this is good not only for users but also for the whole community.”

By Thanh Long