LG Electronics on Tuesday unveiled its latest Whisen air conditioner and a dehumidifier to showcase the most up-to-date technology in home appliances.

At a press event, LG said the air-conditioning speed of its new Whisen Victory is 20 percent faster than the previous products. The product also has an Ice-cool Power function, which quickly lowers room temperature with winds that are colder than existing models.

Ice-cool Power also puts the new Whisen’s air-conditioning speed at 65 percent faster than conventional air conditioners, LG said.

With the added technologies and features, LG expects strong growth this year, noting that the company’s Air Conditioning & Energy Solution division had posted sales of 4.6 trillion won ($4.2 billion) in 2013.

“Despite the sluggish growth of the commercial air conditioner market, we still expect double-digit growth this year,” said Nho Hwan-yong, president of LG Electronics’ AE unit.

Meanwhile, keeping up with the trend of appliances becoming more communication-friendly, LG Electronics has applied the “HomeChat” service, which allows users to chat with home appliances through mobile messenger services.

“The global mobile messenger Line will be applied from April and Kakao Talk from May to the air conditioners, which can support Wi-Fi services,” said Oh Jung-won of LG Electronics’ Residential Air Conditioning division.

When users register the air conditioner as a friend, they can remotely control its main functions and check temperature information. For instance, when asked a question, it gives information about current and desired temperatures, and the intensity of air-conditioning.

The products’ embedded camera senses human movements for more efficient air-conditioning. It can also monitor children playing in the living room. 

On the same day, LG Electronics unveiled its Whisen inverter dehumidifier equipped with its inverter compressor, which increases the dehumidification speed by 20 percent. It also added a smart function which automatically controls room dehumidification.

Oh said, “We have lowered the discharging temperature of the dehumidifier by 10 degrees Celsius and the noise by over 4 decibels compared to conventional dehumidifiers.”

By Shin Ji-hye (shinjh@heraldcorp.com)