1 Ton, 1.5 Ton or 2 Ton? How to Choose the Right AC for Your Room

An AC that is too small runs flat out all afternoon and still can't cool the room. One that is too big cools too fast, switches off and leaves the air damp. Getting the size right is the single biggest decision, and the star rating decides what you pay every month after that.

Step 1: Match the tonnage to your room

"Tonnage" is cooling capacity, not weight. A 1 ton AC removes about 12,000 BTU of heat per hour. As a starting point for a room with a normal 10 ft ceiling:

• 1 Ton: bedrooms and small rooms up to about 120 sq ft
• 1.5 Ton: living rooms and large bedrooms of 120 to 180 sq ft
• 2 Ton: halls, shops and offices of 180 to 250 sq ft

Go one size up if the room is on the top floor, faces west, has large windows, is a kitchen-facing hall, or usually has more than four people in it. Each of these adds heat the AC has to remove.

Step 2: 3 star or 5 star?

The BEE star label tells you how efficient the AC is, measured as ISEER (Indian Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio): how much cooling you get for each unit of electricity across a typical Indian year. The higher the ISEER, the lower the bill.

• Yara 3 star inverter ACs have an ISEER of 3.6 to 3.9.
• Yara 5 star inverter ACs have an ISEER of 5.0 to 5.1, roughly a quarter less electricity for the same cooling.

Rule of thumb: if the AC will run 8 hours or more a day, for most of the year, a 5 star model usually earns back its higher price in electricity savings. For a guest room used a few weeks a year, 3 star is enough.

Step 3: Check what is inside

• Inverter compressor: slows down instead of switching on and off, so the temperature stays steady and power use drops. Every Yara split AC is an inverter AC.
• 100% copper condenser coil: transfers heat better than aluminium and is easier to repair.
• Anti-corrosion (blue fin) evaporator: protects the coil from humidity and coastal air.
• R-32 refrigerant: cools efficiently with a lower environmental impact than older gases.
• PM 2.5 filter: traps fine dust, smoke and pollen.
• BLDC fan motors: quieter and use less power than conventional fan motors.

Getting the most out of your AC

• Set it to 24°C. Each degree lower adds noticeably to your bill without much extra comfort.
• Clean the filter every two weeks in summer.
• Close curtains on sunny windows and keep doors shut while it runs.
• Get it serviced once a year, ideally before summer.

Explore the Yara inverter AC range in 1, 1.5 and 2 ton, 3 star and 5 star.