Saijo Denki to offer 'intelligent' Internet-linked air-conditioners

Thunyawat Chitiparlungsri, assistant managing director of Saijo Denki, said the company planned to launch a new generation of air-conditioners with an Internet connection feature.

With each unit connected to the Internet, the system will have the ability to determine the building’s internal and external temperatures or relative humidity, subsequently adjusting the air-conditioner’s temperature settings based on the data it receives.

Each air-conditioner is also equipped with the ability to self-diagnose and transmit warnings in the event of a malfunction, and has an analytics function that can provide energy usage reports to the building manager’s device of choice.

Initially, the company will offer these for data centres and computer server rooms, for which the total market is forecast to be between Bt100 million and Bt200 million.

The company this year aims for Bt20 million to Bt30 million in revenue from this market segment.

Thunyawat said that by early next year, the company would have Internet-linked air-conditioners available for home use.

"In the future, every air-conditioner should be able to connect to the Internet. For now, it is connected to Internet for maintenance purposes."

"We do not need to build a new manufacturing plant, we will just modify our existing production lines to produce the Internet-air conditioners for both the data-centre and home-use segments," he said.

Saijo Denki targets Bt1 billion in revenue this year from sales of 150,000 units, 70 per cent in this country and 30 per cent for export.

Thunyawat said that the company had partnered with Dell to deliver intelligent, data-driven air-conditioning systems that will enable commercial buildings to monitor and manage their energy consumption better.