I replaced the air conditioner in my room a few days back and was so happy to see a feature - a feature I've been wanting all these years, a feature that makes me not have to put off the a/c in the middle of the night, a feature that doesn't have me searching for an other blanket, a feature that doesn't leave me cold and shivering in the morning, a feature that lets me sleep in peace all night.
I've made it sound like a major disruptive innovation, but all I'm talking about is a mode (good sleep mode) - it maintains the room temperature 2 degrees below the set temp for the first one hour (to fall asleep faster), then maintains the temperature at set temp varying fan and swing direction to try and mimic cold breeze and (the best part) gradually increases the temp by 3 degrees an hour before you have to wake up, so u don't wake up cold. Optimal temperature maintenance for good sleep - this they found out by research.
They could have just asked me :)
And am very sure, that there were a number of other customers for whom this was a problem - the room getting over cold. (25 degrees in the night is comfortable, 25 degrees early morning is COLD.) Why were they not heard?
Manufacturers primarily concentrate on efficiency. Better compressors, energy conservation, higher fan speeds, cleaner filters and other such features. All these are important features - no doubt, but while they were trying so hard to cool the room, they overlooked the fact that they could be over cooling it. They do study consumer behavior, but in terms of buying behavior rather than usage patterns. Customer satisfaction a few years back meant, deliver what was promised - which was cooling the room faster than the competitor and Convenience according to them, was reflected in climate control (maintains room temp at a fixed set temperature), cleaner air and humidity control. If they had analyzed consumer behavior better, this simple feature that I'm talking about would have been included a long time back.
Efficiency and convenience are analogous, I do agree, but they cannot be clubbed as one. Improving efficiency alone will in no way enhance the other. Ease of use has to be given equal importance. Am glad manufacturers are realizing it fast.
