Posts Tagged york air conditioning
How Does Central Air Conditioning Work?
Posted by Tony in How Air Conditioner Units Work on July 30th, 2011
No doubt you are know that air conditioner units come in many forms, including portable air conditioners, dual hosed and single hosed units, heat and cool units, window and through the wall units, evaporative coolers and absorptive chillers. What we are looking at here is just another method, but how does central air conditioning work?
All primary home air conditioning systems tend to work on similar principals and central air conditioners are purpose built to cool the entire home. They use ducts to disperse and recycle cooled air throughout rooms on a continuous basis. Some models may also move chilled water via pipes and heat exchangers.
Frequently, you will find a split system where the condenser and compressor are located outdoors and connected by refrigerant lines to a coil (or evaporator) in the in the air handler unit. Such a unit basically resembles a metal box that may comprise of a blower, filters, heating/cooling elements, humidifier, mixing chamber, controls and vibration isolators. With a singular ‘packaged’ system, everything is normally located in a single outdoor unit.
In a split system, heat from the home is transferred to the outside using a compressor cycle that works similarly to a refrigerator. A refrigerant fluid is passed through an expansion device which changes from liquid to gas when it absorbs heat and is then released outdoors at high pressure as vapour before changing back from gas to liquid. The fluid will then return to the expansion device and the process repeated. The air in the home is cooled as it travels over the evaporator; the moisture removed from the air and disposed by the unit via the normal household drainage system.
Central air conditioning has a few benefits over other systems as the air is drawn through a filter. This filter extracts any dust and lint particles cleaning the air as well as cooling it. Additionally, specialist filters can also remove microscopic pollutants which can affect health. A further benefit is that noise is reduced as the unit is external to the building.
Central air conditioning is an efficient system but you do need to try and get the highest SEER rating you can afford (the range is 10 to 17). (SEER refers to the Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio.) If the unit carries the Energy Star label, it will have a SEER of at least 13 for a split system and 12 for a single unit.
Hope the above helps!
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3 Good Reasons To Buy A Portable Air Conditioner
SPT TN-12E TechniTrend
Ignore the fact that portable air conditioner units can look like something out of Star Wars, you need to make your decisions based on real facts, some of which are presented here.
Visit a few blogs and forums on the Internet, as you will find them full of information and you will find that people voice similar concerns. These include concerns about price, energy consumption, noise levels and venting.
Keep in mind that the average portable air conditioner unit is run for 750 hours each year in the USA and that they use a fair amount of energy. The Energy Efficiency Rating (or EER). Basically, the higher the EER rating the more energy efficient the unit will be. EER ratings of 8 for example, are at the low end of energy efficiency but these tend to be older units. The average rating today appears to be around 12 which is good.
Before you buy your portable air conditioner units, check the number of amps available to the room you intend to cool. Basically, if you buy a unit that uses 14.5 amps and your circuit is 15 amps you could end up blowing the fuses!
Looking at noise levels, portable air conditioner units that deliver 14,000 Btu’s or less normally tend to noise levels around 50 decibels. To compare, this is similar to the noise that most refrigerators will generate.
The jury is still out as to whether a dual hose unit is superior to the single hose formation when it comes to venting. While a single hose unit will drain some of the cool air it produces from the room, a dual hose system will help eliminate this problem. However, a dual hose system tends to be slightly less efficient for reasons such as the use two internal fans.
Portable air conditioner units tend to have one of three methods of disposing of the water extracted by the dehumidifier module. i) Automatic evaporation will eliminate the need for any drains or reservoir pans but just how reliable this system is will vary from model to model. ii) Some models will use a direct drain via a hose attached to the unit which can be a problem unless the unit is used near a drain or a bucket! iii) You can simply empty the reservoir yourself that seems like the easiest option to me.
The price of your unit should be looked at in conjunction with efficiency, as a highly efficient unit will offset any higher price over time. A cheaper model that is not as efficient, over time, will cost more. Remember that portable air conditioners are usually more inefficient than comparable window units although they tend to cost twice as much.
Portable air conditioner units do have at least one huge advantage, you can move them where they need to be and store them away when you don’t.
