Luxury brand segment has been an industry not traditionally associated with sustainability and concern for the environment. However, today the scenario is changing. High-profile and high street brands are becoming more and more conscious about the environment and are investing in sustainable products.
Fanzart, designers and manufacturers of luxury fans based in Bengaluru are one such brand who are concerned about energy saving & power consumption and are constantly innovating on how their products can reduce carbon footprint.
Bharath Anjanappa of CINIMIRROR caught up with the young and dynamic Tarun Lala, Founder and Director at Fanzart on the occasion of World Environment Day.
Q: What does sustainability mean to you as a luxury lifestyle brand?
A: Sustainability to us means many things- making things more efficient, increasing the longevity and solving problems in a smart, efficient and eco-friendly way, while making them look good.
Q: Yours is a luxury brand but you still have products that are sustainable and energy efficient. How do your products achieve that?
A: Luxury brands world over are becoming conscious about the environment and greenhouse gases. We as a responsible luxury fan manufacturer want to make sure our products are energy efficient and consume less power. There are many ways in which our products achieve that. We don’t use aluminium. We use high quality acrylic or specially handcrafted wood. In addition, we use Brush Less DC motors that absorb 70% lesser power. We have also incorporated a lot of technological features that make our products energy efficient.
Q: How are you leveraging technology to achieve sustainability?
A: Use of technology is key for achieving sustainability.
- We use Brush less DC motors that absorb 70% lesser power. They absorb 22-25W of Power as against the 80-95W of an AC induction motor fan. The day all the fans in India are powered by DC motors, India will save between 3 and 4 MWh of Power. DC motors are basically the answer to India’s power problems.
- We have a summer-winter feature in a few fans. The winter mode means that the fan spins in the clockwise direction rather than anti-clockwise, and so you get a lovely circulation of air even when it’s cold outside. Now think of when it’s hot outside. Switching on the AC, along with the winter mode, allows the AC’s cool air to get vacuumed upwards and spread all across the room. Using the fan in anti-clockwise mode also allows the AC to absorb lesser power as the fan reduces the temperature by 2 degrees, the winter mode is quite the disruption when it comes to using it as a combination with the AC.
- We have added smart sensors in a few fans. For example – in our pedestal fan Humanoid, we have a human sensor, so it automatically adjusts its oscillation based on where the humans are, so it doesn’t waste the majority of it’s360 degree rotation on where people are not.
- Eco Mode: Then there are other sensors that increase or decrease the speed in your fan based on room temperature, if you choose the eco mode.
- Sleep feature is another unique and power saving feature that allows the fan to alternate between higher speeds and lower speeds as a way to refresh the air draft, while saving power.
Q.How much electricity can we save by using energy efficient fans?
A: In DC motor fans we can save 70%. These fans absorb 22-25W of power as against the 80-95W. In AC motor fans we save 20-25%. These fans absorb 65-70W as against the 80-95W.
Q.Most parts of the country are seeing rise in temperatures. What type of fan one should buy?
A: At Fanzart, we have over 100+ designs to choose from. We also have fans specifically for each use case: bedrooms, walk-in wardrobes, kitchens, bathrooms and more. We have introduced a Bold Series, that have RPMs between 300 and 400, which are super-fast, while still being silent. Our dining table fans are at 400RPM, and offer Summer-Winter feature as well. Even in the expensive range our CFM numbers are some of the highest in the country. We have increased the blade angle (effective Blade Pitch), to displace a higher amount of air. We even have the highest CFM fan in the residential use case – 14,188 CFM.
Q: Give some suggestions how one can reduce one’s carbon footprint.
A: Use Smart Appliances: fans, LEDs, and then mix and match fan + AC if you need the AC, use solar panels, reduce or eliminate single use plastic, be mindful of how you use waterand lights etc around the house, have plants indoors as well and use composting machines for your apartment complex.
Long term ways of reducing carbon footprint would be to go electric on vehicles and look at renewables.
