The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum

CONSUMER RIGHTS
Some fanfare
Pushpa Girimaji

AT the height of summer, nothing can be as irritating as a malfunctioning fan regulator. You want the fan blowing full blast, but the regulator refuses to respond to your command. A ceiling fan may work relentlessly, but the same cannot be said of regulators. You may even have to replace your old regulator.

Today, most consumers prefer the sleek electronic regulator to the large electric one, though the former costs between Rs 125 and Rs 250 as against Rs 40 for the latter. Besides having better looks, an electronic regulator is far more efficient and consumes less power.

But that depends on whether you choose the right regulator. A poor-quality regulator will not only fail to control the speed of the fan, but also cause disturbances in the reception of television and radio signals. (When you move the switch of a regulator from an 'off' position to 'on', it may create unwanted higher frequencies, which in turn interfere with the reception of your television and radio sets. Good-quality regulators have additional components and circuitry to prevent this.)

That's not all. If the regulator has poor insulation, it can cause an electric shock if you operate the switch with wet hands or without wearing shoes. Sub-standard regulators can also produce a low, humming noise that can be irritating. Some of them also lack the mechanical strength to withstand even a few months of use. Either the knob comes apart or the casing just breaks into two or the regulator just stops functioning.

Regulators basically increase or decrease the speed of the fan by augmenting or reducing voltage supply to the coils inside the fan. In an electric regulator, the change in voltage is achieved through a resistor provided in it. The resistor reduces voltage supply by absorbing some of the electric current or voltage. This not only results in wastage of energy but also leads to heating of the resistor and eventually affects the life of the regulator itself.

Electronic fan regulators, on the other hand, reduce or increase power supply by changing the wave form or wave shape of the mains supply voltage, thus avoiding wastage of power.

The Consumer Education and Research Centre (CERC), an Ahmedabad-based consumer group which recently tested 14 brands of fans and their electric regulators, says that a good regulator should be able to bring the speed down to at least 50 per cent of the full speed. However, six of the 14 brands tested failed to achieve this.

Similarly, it tested 11 brands of electronic regulators: three of them the 'movable type' and the rest, 'step-type'. While in the 'movable type' the regulator turns from one speed to another, in the 'step type' the speed changes in steps. The CERC found that while the movable type of electronic regulators caused very high distortion in the power waves, the step-type of electronic regulators showed very little total harmonic distortion.

Such high distortion may well cause overheating of the fan motor and lead to faster ageing of the fan. In addition, the movable type may make a low humming sound at low speeds on account of the absence of filter circuits. The CERC concluded that electronic regulators consumed relatively less power at low speeds. At speed one and two, there would be reduction in power consumption---by as much as 40-30 per cent-- but at full speed, both electric and electronic regulators consumed the same power.

Some years ago, a Delhi-based consumer group, the Voluntary Organisation in the Interest of Consumer Education (VOICE) tested 10 brands of electronic regulators. With respect to strength and endurance, all 10 brands passed the test but in the performance parameter, not every brand fared well. In the insulation resistance test, two brands did so poorly that they could cause a fatal electric shock.

It's time consumers demanded mandatory quality certification for electronic fan regulators too, as in the case of domestic switches and sockets, to ensure energy efficiency and safety.