Japanese AC Manufacturer Daikin Industries Turns To Special Semiconductor To Save Energy

AC Daikin will be equipped with a special energy-efficient chip. (photo: x @KidangioJp)

The company that made AC from Japan, Daikin Industries, has turned to a special artificial semiconductor to save energy. This is done in line with the company's growing interest in special chip designs to improve performance.

While tech giants like Apple and Amazon have spent huge costs on state-of-the-art special chips. Now, companies that use older chips are also looking for ways to introduce custom silicon.

Daikin, headquartered in Osaka and plans to make 10 million AC houses this fiscal year, said they partnered with a Japanese design firm to customize the logic chip for the inverters used in their ACs.

Inverter regulates the speed of air conditioning motors to save energy. This is common in Japan and the European Union, but not common in the United States.

These dedicated chips are more expensive than generally available alternatives but offer better energy efficiency and allow reduction in the use of other components, according to a Daikin executive.

"To get the full performance out of the AC compressors and motors, we need to improve the performance of the chips or we will reach the limit," said Yuji Yoneda, general manager of Daikin's technology and innovation center, in an interview quoted by VOI from Reuters.

Daikin plans to start introducing the chip in top-class ACs starting in 2025 and plans to use it in about one-fifth of a unit by the end of the decade.

The company, which developed Japan's first wrapped AC in 1951, is also developing an adapted power module, which helps manage AC's electricity supply.

Daikin has recruited engineers from the chip industry to work on this adjustment while competing with persistent investments in the domestic semiconductor industry.

Daikin hopes that increasing focus on energy efficiency will be a breath of fresh air for the company. According to the International Energy Agency, the number of ACs worldwide is expected to triple to 5.6 billion units by 2050.