Gandhinagar resident Dashrath Patel, who is an AC repairer is giving a tough competition to IKEA with his innovative, life changing idea. Dashrath has conceptualized and designed the first ever sofa with an in-built AC.
“I first thought of installing air-conditioner in a sofa in 2008 and started working on it. But the first sofa I made weighed around 175 kg, which was way too heavy,” Dashrath told Times of India.
The highly imaginative AC repairer had thought of this idea some years ago and was helped by the National Institute of Design (NID) in making his thought come into reality.
“Then I heard of ‘Design Clinic Scheme’ of MSME ministry and I approached them. They provided me a designer who modified the design and changed the material, reducing the weight to 35 kgs,” Dashrath continued to tell his story.
An NID alumnus named Ankit Vyas, assisted Dashrath in making his dream product light and affordable. The product will be of great utility for event and hotel based businesses. The design clinic scheme of the ministry of micro, small and medium scale businesses runs in collaboration with NID since 201o.
Dashrath will soon be launching the sofa with an inbuilt AC in the market at Rs 1-1.25 lakh.
Ankit Vyas told, “It works like a split AC with a unit inside the sofa linked by pipe to an outer unit. The air-flow will come out from the hand-rest part of the sofa.”
Its features:
- The product will work like a house AC that we commonly use.
- The temperature can be set by its remote.
- One can also switch it on on the fan-mode.
- Air-flow will come out from the hand-rests.
“The earlier model was of wood. All parts, including the hose pipe of the AC were wooden which made it heavy. I replaced wood with glass fibre. For pipe I used PVC,” Vyas shared his contribution to the product. The product has been targeted at even management firms and hotels with terrace restaurants.
60 % of the expenses of designing are borne by the Ministry of Micro Small and Medium Enterprises’ (MSME) scheme. The balance is given to the product innovator in the form of a grant.
News Courtesy: Times Of India
