Airtower Air Conditioning Unit, developed by Setran Plus company, was among the innovations from the Technology Park Ljubljana which won the approval both at home and abroad. It was awarded a special recognition as the best innovation by a start up company at the 9th Slovenian Innovation Forum, and it placed among the 10 best innovations at the Smart City Expo Fair. What makes Airtower so special? Traditional air condition units are rather bulky devices, fixed below ceiling, and quite often spoil the appearance of the exterior of buildings. Their use normally substantially increases the bills for consumed electric power.
"Compared to a traditional air conditioning unit our Airtower consumes 1,000 times less electric power for its operation. The electric power it consumes during the entire season costs only 1 euro. While traditional air conditioning units consumes approximately 1,500 to 2,000 Watts for their operation, Airtower needs only 2 Watts. It has other advantages as well – it is silent, as it is driven by a soundless computer fan, it causes no draught, it is portable and mobile. There is no need for an outdoor unit or wall mounting, and it does not dry the air," explains Rok Lončarič, the leader of Setran Plus company. Especially dry air in offices is the cause of innumerable problems employees face – it affects throats, eyes, causes allergies…
He admits that passive cooling with minimal use of electric power can't compete with the cooling power of traditional air conditioning units, but their unit still prevents the temperature in closed rooms from reaching 26 degrees Celsius in summer. "Out tests at several commercial users (hotels, offices, shops) performed last year in August prove that our air conditioning unit is efficient in cooling a room of 5 to 10 m2 – for greatest efficiency one Airtower should stand next to a desk for one employee," Lončarič continues. On customers' request they are presently developing a new model, four times bigger, in the size of a radiator, which will manage to cool a room of 30 to 40 m2.