[Nail Technology Observation] In the context of the epidemic, people's demands for health are becoming increasingly strong, and air conditioning products with fresh air ventilation capabilities have also attracted more and more attention from consumers.
From the perspective of the market, the overall market for air conditioning continues to decline, but fresh air conditioning is growing against the trend. GfK Zhongyikang pushed the total data, in 2021, the retail volume of the household fresh air air conditioner market reached 832,000 units, an increase of 113.8% year-on-year; the retail sales volume was 4.84 billion yuan, an increase of 67.2% year-on-year, while the retail volume of the household air conditioning market fell by 7.6% year-on-year and the retail sales volume increased by 0.5% year-on-year in the same period.
Although the proportion of fresh air conditioners in air conditioning sales is still not high, the proportion is constantly increasing. Also from Gfk Data from Yikang, the share of fresh air conditioners in the retail volume and retail sales of household air conditioners in 2021 was 1.7% and 3.1%, respectively, compared with 2020, the share of fresh air conditioners increased by 1.0% and 1.2% respectively.
With the heating of fresh air conditioning, mainstream air conditioning brands such as Gree, Midea, Haier, Oaks, Hisense, TCL, etc. have worked hard to lay out this track. However, "Nail Technology" noted that although these brands are laying out fresh air conditioners, few air conditioning brands have launched two-way flow fresh air conditioning products, basically one-way flow fresh air products, why is this?
The so-called unidirectional flow and two-way flow actually originate from the concept of fresh air system. One-way flow is a one-way forced air supply or one-way exhaust, so it is divided into positive pressure one-way flow and negative pressure one-way flow. The former belongs to the "forced air supply + natural exhaust", the indoor formation of positive pressure, under the action of positive pressure to squeeze out the indoor dirty air. The latter belongs to the "forced exhaust + natural air supply", the indoor formation of negative pressure, outdoor fresh air into the room, similar to the exhaust fan.
Two-way flow, belonging to the "forced air supply + forced exhaust" system, can be filtered outdoor fresh air delivered indoors, and actively discharge the indoor dirty gas, both send and discharge, to achieve indoor and outdoor air replacement and convection, relatively speaking, the formation of air flow organization is more scientific and effective.
"Nail Technology" noted that most of the brand fresh air conditioners released on the market are one-way flow products, that is, only forced air supply or only forced exhaust, using negative pressure to bring fresh air indoors, to achieve indoor and outdoor air circulation replacement. For example, Oaks' newly released four-season fresh air conditioner, TCL small blue wing fresh air conditioner and Midea, Hisense and other brands of fresh air air conditioner are basically one-way flow products. From the perspective of public information, Gree is one of the few mainstream brands that has launched two-way flow fresh air conditioning.
"Nail Technology" observation believes that the reason why the vast majority of air conditioning brands do not have the main two-way flow products, there are two reasons:
First, for cost reasons.
At present, the price of fresh air conditioning is relatively high, even if the one-way flow fresh air conditioner is much higher than the ordinary air conditioner, and with reference to the price of Gree two-way flow air conditioner, it is almost twice the price of ordinary two-way flow air conditioning products, such as Gree Zhen fresh air 1.5 horse two-way flow fresh air conditioning, Jingdong platform price reached 7599 yuan, Oaks, TCL 1.5 horse fresh air conditioning price of about 3000-4000 yuan.
The reason why the two-way flow fresh air conditioner is more expensive is because it increases the mechanical supply air supply system, the internal structure of the machine is relatively complex, with a full heat exchanger, so the price tends to double.
It should be known that ordinary air-conditioning brands do not have the brand premium ability of Gree, and it is difficult to support such a high price in the air-conditioning market with increasing downward pressure, so most brands choose one-way flow products with low layout costs.
Second, the two-way flow technology is not perfect enough.
Some head air conditioning companies have the ability to develop two-way flow products, and also have a certain brand pull, but they have not launched two-way flow products because they do not fully recognize two-way flow. For example, an air-conditioning company told "Nail Technology" that there are some publicity two-way flow in the market, in fact, the import and export outlet is very close, and the fresh air that is easy to inhale is quickly released, and the effect is not good or not. Some air-conditioning companies also told Nail Technology that the two-way flow is currently only used as a reserve technology.
In summary, "Nail Technology" believes that although the two-way flow fresh air system can be called an advanced model of one-way flow, it is necessary to further optimize the cost and technology in the process of specific productization. For consumers, if the budget is enough, they can still consider buying two-way flow fresh air products with a better overall experience. (Nail Technology original, reprint must indicate the source: Nail Technology Network)