Energy Transitions (2020) 4:191–197

https://doi.org/10.1007/s41825-020-00033-y

ORIGINAL RESEARCH

Comparison of energy consumption between non‑inverter

and inverter‑type air conditioner in Saudi Arabia
Ahmed Almogbel1 · Fahad Alkasmoul1 · Zaid Aldawsari1 · Jaber Alsulami1 · Ahmed Alsuwailem1

Received: 30 September 2020 / Accepted: 12 November 2020 / Published online: 7 December 2020
© The Author(s) 2020

Abstract
Interest for air-conditioning systems (ACs) has exponentially expanded worldwide throughout the most recent couple of
decades. Countries with booming economies including Saudi Arabia report high growth of sales of room air conditioners.
With the expanded (GDP) and warming climates, interest for room air-conditioning systems is required to additionally
increment. Meeting the expanded need for electricity energy will be a challenge. Expanded utilization of energy-efficient
air conditioners impactsly affects lowering the electricity demand. In an ordinary AC, the blower runs at a fixed speed and
is either ON or OFF. In an inverter AC, the compressor is consistently on; however, power drawn relies upon the demand
for cooling. The speed of the compressor is adjusted appropriately. In this paper, the energy consumption of non-inverter
and an inverter AC of the same capacity was assessed in an average office room, under comparative operating conditions,
to find the differences in the energy saving, Carbon Dioxide (­ CO2) emission, and power consumption of air conditioner.
Energy consumption was measured for about 108 days, which is from July 16th to October 31st, 24/7, and compared. The
experiment is conducted with the same conditions and same capacity air conditioners (18,000 BTU). Results show that the
day-by-day normal vitality utilization, the inverter will save up to 44% of electrical consumption compared to a non-inverter
of 3471 kWh/year and 6230 kWh/year respectively. Furthermore, the Total Equivalent Warming Impact (TEWI) analysis
shows that inverters can save 49% of ­CO2 emissions.

Keywords  Air conditioner · Inverter AC · Energy efficiency · Carbon emission

Introduction general, by a long and hot summer. Expanding in population,

increasing in advance plans, and keeping a low indoor tem-
Around 52% of the electricity energy produced in Saudi Ara- perature for buildings have played a vital role on increasing
bia is utilized in buildings and around 66% of that is utilized the demand of electricity for the last decades. In addition,
via air conditioners Alrashed and Asif [1, 2]. This is a con- due to the expanding rate of electricity and aggressive effect
sequence of the severe climatic conditions characterized, in on the environment from power generation, it is necessary
to find the means to seriously reduce energy consumption in
buildings. Since the major part of the energy is consumed by
* Ahmed Almogbel
[email protected] cooling systems in buildings, reducing these consumption
loads becomes most significant figures for energy conserva-
Fahad Alkasmoul
[email protected] tion in buildings. Therefore, switching towards renewable
energy resources and the progress of energy efficiency are
Zaid Aldawsari
[email protected] the key factors to reduce energy consumption, thereby reduc-
ing the construction costs of generating plants and mitigating
Jaber Alsulami
[email protected] the global warming problem. One of the key technologies as
a solution is inverter air conditioner.
Ahmed Alsuwailem
[email protected] The aim of using inverter air conditioners is reducing the
energy consumption through controlling the frequency to
1
Energy and Water Research Institute, King Abdulaziz City meet the desired load while maintaining comfortable indoor
for Science and Technology, P.O. Box 6086, Riyadh 11442, conditions Ghosh and Mali [3]. However, installing inverter
Saudi Arabia

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192 Energy Transitions (2020) 4:191–197

air conditioners adds extra cost compared to the non-inverter inverter air conditioner is more efficient at long time opera-
air conditioners. Nevertheless, this extra cost would be paid tion and this result is the same conclusion was mentioned by
back in a “short” time by the savings made on the electricity Qiqi Zhang et al. [9]. A study on inverter and non-inverter
bill Sukri and Jamali [4]. air conditioner’s performance in Riyadh and Seoul was
The inverter is an electronic controller that can drive conducted by Yoon et al. [10]. This study was performed
electrical systems in smooth and efficient operation, espe- in a precisely controlled air-tight style test room (outdoor
cially for air-conditioning applications. The inverter air side—temperature; indoor side—heat flow controlled) with
conditioner changes capacity freely by altering revolutions a particular size and 26.0 °C air-conditioning temperature
of the compressor. The inverter air conditioner can gener- setting all day. Cooling period is 4 months in Korean and
ate capacity corresponding to the load: when frequency 9 months in Saudi Arabia Lim, et al [11]. Results show that
is low, it generates low capacity with low revolutions, inverter air conditioners are more energy efficient than non-
whereas when frequency is high, it generates high capac- inverter air conditioners, even in a hot Saudi Arabian cli-
ity with high revolutions. Non-inverter operates at fixed mate. The inverter-type saved energy from 18.3% to 47.1%
capacity, and the system is not designed to handle this vari- was observed during the Riyadh cooling months, which are
able load, but for the expected peak load. In an AC, the March–November, whereas, in Seoul, the energy saving was
compressor is the component which consumes electricity. from 36.3% to 51.7% during Seoul cooling months, which
In non-inverter-type ACs, the compressor is either ON or are June to September.
OFF. When it is ON, it works at full capacity and uses the Energy consumption in Saudi Arabia is fluctuating during
full amount of electricity it is designed to consume. When the year. The annual report of Saudi Electricity Company
the set temperature in the AC is reached, the compressor is (SEC) shows that electrical load is driven by temperature
cut-off and cooling is stopped. When the thermostat senses [12]. Therefore, this paper aims to investigate the energy
that the room temperature has increased, the compressor consumption between inverter AC and non-inverter AC in
switches ON again, automatically. That means, in normal Saudi climate in Jeddah during the summer season, as well
air conditioners, the compressor is switched ON and OFF as the environmental impact. A study of evaluating the pay-
intermittently Ashvini et al [5]. back period of inverter AC was conducted in Malaysia. The
The inverter-driven AC with varying cooling power has study shows that inverter AC with 50% energy saving has a
been studied over the last 2 decades and the well-known payback period of 4.67 years. However, energy saving can
solution is to control the rotational speed of the compressor reach to 65% with dual human activity sensors, temperature
based on its cooling load. Nowadays, the inverter technology waves, and sunlight sensors. The payback period is 3.42
has proven its feasibility and competing the non-inverter. years with energy saving of 65% Sukri and Jamali [4].
The intense interest in the potential use of inverter air
conditioners in buildings has resulted in the saving energy
consumption being widely investigated. Many previous Materials and methods
studies have reported anomalous conserves in electricity
consumption compared with non-inverter air conditioners. This paper is conducted in the car maintenance office build-
Yurtseven et al. [6] carried out a field test analysis of inverter ing at the Saudi Arabian Standards Organization (SASO)
and non-inverter air conditioners to compare the energy sav- Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. There are two rooms for this analysis,
ing in public offices in Istanbul. They found that the energy and each room has the same dimension and is occupied by
saving of the inverter air conditioners varies between 11 and the same number of employees. The office area is 14.7 m ­ 2.
38% compared to and non-inverter air conditioners over the Each room has three employees and it is considered as a
whole testing period and they also noticed that the inverter
air conditioners is more energy efficient in the climate con-
dition with high fluctuation temperature over a day. Ekala
Jaela [7] compared the energy consumption of standard
(non-inverter) and inverter air conditioners in an office build-
ing in Sri Lanka at the same capacity and similar environ-
mental and operation conditions. It is found that the energy
consumption of the inverter type is less about 35% com-
pared to non-inverter type. Rahul Khatri and Anant Joshi
[8] investigated the effect of the ambient temperature on the
performance of inverter and constant-speed air conditioners.
They noticed that the inverter air conditioner saves more
energy at partial load operation. It is also noticed that the Fig. 1  Offices’ front view

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Energy Transitions (2020) 4:191–197 193

normal employee office. Figure 1 indicates the front view of The comparison was conducted between two different
the rooms. The whole period of measurement is 108 days, units. One was an inverter unit with 1.50 tons, 13.35 Energy
which is from July 16th to October 31th, 24/7. Efficiency ratio (EER) and refrigerant R32, as shown in

Fig. 2  Room of inverter unit

Fig. 3  Room of non-inverter unit

Fig. 4  Installed air conditionings and sensors

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194 Energy Transitions (2020) 4:191–197

Fig. 2. Another was non-inverter unit with 1.50 tons, 12.15 24 ℃ Al-Subhi and El-Amin [14]. However, the office users
EER and refrigerant type R410a, as shown in Fig. 3. Both air changed the set point of indoor temperature.
conditioners were connected to the 220 V 60 Hz. Figure 5 indicates the average daily energy consumption
Each room had two sensors mounted on the unit and on of Pattern A. Inverter AC’s average energy consumption per
the wall to measure the temperature and humidity. In addi- day is 11.6 KWh/day and non-inverter AC’s is 20.8 KWh/
tion, there was one outdoor sensor to measure the tempera- day. This means that the inverter AC’s energy savings rate
ture and humidity. Wattmeter was installed to record the is around 44%. The annual energy consumption is also cal-
energy consumption and to display it instantly in website. culated by this equation:
All these devices were mounted, as shown Fig. 4.
The average energy consumption per day × cooling Period
(1)

Result The cooling period in Jeddah city is assumed to be

300 days. Therefore, the inverter AC ‘s annual energy con-
Energy saving analysis sumption is 3471 KWh/year and the non-inverter AC’s is
6230 KWh/year.
The test result analysis is divided into two parts for more For pattern B, Fig.  6 shows that the inverter average
details. The first part is Pattern A which is whole period of energy saving is 46% compared to non-inverter. In addition,
measurement from July 16 to October 31 (108 days). The the annual energy consumption for inverter will be 3068
second part is Pattern B, which is 18 days in a specific con- KWh/year, whereas non-inverter is 5702.66 KWh/year. On
dition Alshahrani and Boait [13]. Under the condition, the the other hand, Fig. 7 shows the graph on randomly selected
average daily room temperature difference is ± 1 ℃. The set- typical days in July, August, September, and October. The
ting temperature should have been kept between 22 ℃ and idea for selecting random days is to see the behavior of the
energy saving through the entire period. Thus, the figure

Fig. 5  Energy consumption for Energy Consumpon kwh/day

pattern A 35 40
Energy Consumpon kwh

Temperature °C
30 35
25 30
25
20
20
15
15
10 10
5 5
0 0 non-inverter kwh
2-Oct-2019
3-Oct-2019
8-Oct-2019
9-Oct-2019
14-Oct-2019
15-Oct-2019
22-Oct-2019
23-Oct-2019
24-Oct-2019
25-Oct-2019
26-Oct-2019
27-Oct-2019
28-Oct-2019
29-Oct-2019
30-Oct-2019
31-Oct-2019
28-Aug-2019
4-Sep-2019

inverter kwh
Outdoor temperature °C
Inside Temp inverter
Inside Temp non-inverter
Days

Fig. 6  Energy consumption for Energy Consumpon per day

pattern B 35 40
Temperature °C

30 35
Energy Consumption KWh

30
25
25
20
20
15
15
10 non-inverter kwh
10
5 inverter kwh
5
0 0 Outdoor Temperature °C
16-Jul-2019 16-Aug-2019 16-Sep-2019 16-Oct-2019
Inside Temp inverter
Days

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Energy Transitions (2020) 4:191–197 195

Fig. 7  Power consumption in randomly selected typical days: a July; b August; c September; d October

illustrates that the when the output temperature increases,

the big difference between inverter and non-inverter appears
on energy saving.

CO2 emission reduction analysis

Greenhouse Gas (GHG) including C ­ O 2 emission has

become concern to the climate change. Although air condi-
tioners contribute to a portion of these emissions, inverter
technology can contribute to C­ O2 emission reduction. This
paper will exam the difference between the inverter and
non-inverter in term of ­CO2 emission.
First, there are two ways of greenhouse gas emissions
(direct/indirect). The direct emission is the refrigerant
released during the operation and at the end of life of AC. Fig. 8  Chart shows the TWEI result of inverter and non-inverter unit
Indirect emission is the C ­ O 2 released due to producing
electricity for operating AC. To calculate the C ­ O2 emis-
sion during AC’s lifetime, the TEWI assessment for both Results show that the inverter R32 unit has less emis-
inverter and non-inverter: sion in both direct and indirect emissions than the non-
inverter R410A unit. Inverter R32 unit has less direct
GWP × Charge (Leakrate × Lifetime + (1 − 𝛼))
TEWI = emission, because R32 unit has less GWP and less refrig-
Direct Emission erant charge than R410A. Also, inverter unit has less
Cosumption × Emission factor × Lifetime
+ indirect emission, because it is more energy efficient than
Indirect Emission (Electricity) non-inverter unit.
(2)

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196 Energy Transitions (2020) 4:191–197

Table 1  Parameters required Parameter Non-inverter Inverter Unit Description

calculating TEWI for inverter
(R32) and non-inverter (R410a) Charge 1.70 1.12 Kg Refrigerant charge
GWP 2,088 675 kgCO2e/kg Global warming potential
Leak rate 10 10 % Annual leakage rate
Lifetime 10 10 Years Period when AC is used
α 0 0 % Refrigerant recovery rate at end of life
Consumption 6,230 3,471 kWh Annual energy consumption
Emission factor 0.654 0.654 kgCO2e/kg Emission factor for Saudi Arabia
Direct emission 7,099 1,512
Indirect emission 40,744 22,700
TEWI 47,843 24,212 kgCO2e/lifetime Total equivalent warming impact
*
 EF source: IGES-Version10.6

Table 2  Results of comparison
Scenario Total emissions of 10 years Unit

Baseline 240,344,696 t-CO2e

Mitigation 222,790,083 t-CO2e
Saving 17,554,613 t-CO2e (7.3%)

which stands for Energy Efficiency Ratio, and Mitigation is

Fig. 9  Baseline:inverter ratio increases slightly (30% in 2029) the standard in Saudi Arabia with assmuption to change to
SEER which stands for Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio.
Table 1 shows the parameters for both inverter and non-
inverter to calculaute the value of TEWI.
The results show that 17,554,613 t-CO2 could be saved
if inverter R32 air conditioners are disseminated along with
mitigation scenario compared to baseline scenario.
Figure 9 illustrates the baseline scenario for the next
10 years where the increment of the inverter units in 2029 is
30% from the baseline, while Fig. 10 shows the mitigation
scenario of the inverter units with an increment in 60% from
the baseline in 2029. Table 2 shows the result of this com-
parison which is saving about 7.3% in ­CO2 emission in 2029.
Fig. 10  Mitigation:inverter ratio increases rapidly (60% in 2029)

Finally, the paper shows that the inverter R32 unit Conclusion
reduces the C­ O 2 emission by 49.4% compared to non-
inverter R410A unit, as shown in Fig. 8. This paper has been conducted with comparison between
We also estimate the GHG emissions difference in 2029 inverter and non-inverter air conditioner, which shows that
(in 10 years), comparing the baseline and mitigation sce- the inverter can save energy consumption up to 44% com-
nario below: pared to non-inverter with 3471 kWh/year and 6230 kWh/
( ) year, respectively. In addition, TEWI analysis demonstrates
GHG emissions difference t − CO2 in 2029 that inverter can save the C
­ O2 emission by 49%. The analysis
= TEWI result of Baseline scenario total stock clarifies the advantage of using air conditioners with inverter
− TEWI result of Mitigation scenario total stock (3) type instead of using non-inverter, especially for the weather
in Saudi Arabia will reduce energy consumption. With the
where basline is the Performance Evaluation standard for air expected growth of AC use and ambient temperature rise
conditioners in Saudi Arabia with assumption to stay as EER due to global warming, inverter technology can provide

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Energy Transitions (2020) 4:191–197 197

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as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, the 9th Asian Conference on Refrigeration and Air-conditioning
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included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated under hot climate based on real-scale experiment and energy simula-
otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in tion. Energies 12(8), 1489 (2019)
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copy of this licence, visit http://creat​iveco​mmons​.org/licen​ses/by/4.0/. with air-conditioning needs in Saudi Arabia. Energies 12(1), 87
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