Air conditioning is a process to remove heat and moister from the interior space for improvising your comfort level and used in both commercial and domestic environment. The process is all about achieving the comfort level for your interior environment. Knowing about Air Conditioners would help in choosing the best conditioner depending on your requirement. It also helps you deal while having technical problems with Air Conditioner.
Air conditioning is also used to cool/dehumidify the rooms with heat emitting electronic devices. For example to reduce the temperature in the server room. Not just that but Google actually implemented a technology using deep learning and machine learning which reduced that saved Google a billion on just cooling.
But in general, the Air conditioners we use in the home and offices use a fan to distribute the air inside the occupied space to improve thermal comfort and indoor air quality.
Air conditioners refrigerant’s ranges from the small air conditioner for a single person to massive installations over the rooftop for offices.
Typically cooling is achieved by refrigerant cycle but sometimes uses evaporation or free cooling. Air conditioning systems can also be made based on desiccants; chemicals which remove moisture from the air.
In other words, Air conditioning can refer to any form of technology that modifies the condition of air heating, dehumidification, cooling, air cleaning, ventilation, or air movement.
The history behind air conditioners
The basic concept behind air conditioning is said to have been in ancient Egypt. The reeds were hung on the window and were moistened with trickling water. The evaporation of water cooled the air blowing through windows. The process used to make the air more humid, which is more beneficial in the dry desert climate.
In the 2nd Century, Chinese mechanical engineer and inventor Ding Huan of the Han Dynasty invented a rotary fan for air conditioning, with seven wheels, 3 meters in diameter and were manually powered by prisoners of that time.
In 747, Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty had a pool hall named as Liang Dian built in Imperial Palace, which is described as having water-powered fan wheels for air conditioning. During the Song Dynasty written sources mentioned the air conditioning rotary fan as more widely used.
In the 17th century the Dutch Inventor demonstrated “Turning Summer into Winter” as an early form of modern air conditioning for James I of England by adding salt into the water.
The modern air conditioning emerged from Chemistry in the 19th Century. In 1902 the first large scale electric air conditioner was invented by US inventor Willis Carrier. In 1820 English scientist and Inventor Michael Faraday discovered that compressing and liquefying ammonia could chill air when allowed to evaporate.
In 1842 Florida Physician John Gorrie used compressor technology to create ice. James Harrison’s first mechanical ice-making machine began operation in 1851 on the banks of the Barwon River at Rocky Point in Geelong, Australia. His first commercial ice-making machine followed in 1853, and his patent for an ether vapour compression refrigeration system was granted in 1855.
In 1902, the first electrical air conditioner was made by Willis Carrier in Buffalo, New York. The first air conditioner, designed and built in Buffalo by Carrier, began working on 17 July 1902.
Carrier’s invention not only controlled temperature but also humidity, using his knowledge of the heating of objects with steam and reversed the processes of sending hot air to hot coils, he sent it through cold coils filled with cold water.
The air was cooled and the amount of moisture in the air could be controlled. In 1945, Robert Sherman of Lynn, Massachusetts invented a portable in-window air conditioner that cools, heats, humidify, dehumidify and filter the air.
Thomas Midgley Jr. created the first non-toxic chlorofluorocarbon gas, non-inflammable, Freon in 1928. The name is a trademark name owned by DuPont for any chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), or hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant.
The refrigerant names include a number indicating the molecular composition as R-11, R-12, R-22, R-134A. The blend most used in direct expansion home and building comfort cooling is an HCFC known as chlorodifluoromethane R-22.
Working Principle behind an Air Conditioner
Air conditioner collects air from the given space, processes it with the help of refrigerant and a bunch of coils. Then releases the cool air into space from where the hot air has been collected. This is how all air conditioners work.
When an air conditioner is switched on and set to the desired temperature, the thermostat present in it senses that there is a difference in the room temperature and the temperature which you have chosen. The warm air is drawn through a grille present at the base of the indoor unit, which flows over pipes through which the refrigerant is flowing. Than refrigerant liquid absorbs the heat and becomes a hot gas.
This is how heat is removed which falls on the evaporator coil. The refrigerant gas is passed to the outdoor unit, as the compressor compresses the gas and becomes hot since compressing a gas increases the temperature. The hot high-pressure gas travels to the condenser; it condenses the hot gas to become liquid.
The refrigerant reaches the condenser as a hot gas but quickly becomes cooler liquid because the heat is dissipated to the surroundings through metal fins. Through an expansion valve – a tiny hole in system’s copper tubing which controls the flow of cool liquid refrigerant into the evaporator.
The entire process is repeated again and again until the set desired temperature is reached.
Cooling in traditional air conditioner systems is obtained using the vapour compression cycle, which uses the forced circulation and phase change of a refrigerant between gas and liquid to transfer heat. The vapour compression cycle can occur within a packaged piece of equipment that is connected to thermal cooling equipment on its evaporator side and heating rejection equipment on its condenser side.
In dry climates, evaporative coolers are the best which one can own. An evaporative cooler is a device that draws outside air through a wet pad. The heat is measured with the dry bulb thermometer. The temperature of the coming air is reduced but becomes more humid. So the total heat is unchanged.
If the entering air is dry enough, the results can be quite substantial. Evaporative coolers rely on the outside air to be channelled through cooler pads that cool the air before it reaches the inside of a house through its air duct system. This cooled outside air must be allowed to push the warmer air within the house out through an exhaust opening such as an open door or window. These coolers are cheaper and easy to understand and maintain.
Air Conditioning can also be provided with a process of free cooling which uses pumps to circulate air as a coolant such as air, which typically acts as a heat sink for the energy that is removed from the cooled space. The heat pump is added because the temperature of the storage increases during the cooling season, so declining is effective.
Free cooling systems can have very high efficiencies and are sometimes combined with seasonal thermal energy storage (STES), the cold of winter can be used for summer air conditioning. Free cooling and hybrid systems are mature technology under free cooling.
Types of Air Conditioners available in the market for consumers
1. Portable Air Conditioners
Portable units are the easy to call and most mobile cooling devices. It can be easily transported to your desired location. These are currently available with the capacity ranges about 5,000 to 60,000 BTU/H and with or without electric resistance heater.
Portable air conditioners are either evaporative or refrigerative and you can choose any of them as they are available in the market through different air conditioner manufacturers.
2. Split System
Split system air conditioners use the inside environment, the evaporative heat exchanger is separated by some distance from the outside environment heat exchanger. They usually have 2 machines in operation in order to reduce the temperature. In operation, The indoor unit spreads the cool air in the room and the outdoor unit exchanges the hot air with cool air.
Mini Split System
A mini split system is a common application of a ductless system. The mini split system typically allows a variety of indoor units which includes wall mounted, ceiling mounted and horizontal ducted air conditioners. The mini split system typically produces 9,000 to 36,000 BTU per hour of cooling and provides heating capacity up to 60,000 BTU.
Multi Split System
Multi Split System is a conventional system which includes evaporator and condenser. Multi Split System allows cooling and heating of several rooms with one outdoor unit. The outdoor unit of a mini split air conditioner is more powerful compressor with ports for connecting several traces and automation with locking valves for regulating the volume of refrigerant supplied to the indoor units located in the room.
3. Window Air Conditioner
A window air conditioner a single machine which fits in the window and cools the temperature in the room. WIndow air conditioner noisy but they are cheaper compared to split air conditioner and portable air conditioner. Unline portable AC window ac sticks to the place once fixed in and requires a technically specialised mechanic to change its the location.
Related: Which is the Best Window AC to buy?
4. Central Air Conditioners
Central Air Conditioners provide temperature control and ventilation to an area by an air handler and distributing it to one or more zones. The temperature of different zones can be controlled with a remote controller allocated for a specific machine of their area.
Well, these were the types of air conditioners and now we believe that you will be able to make your decision of buying the right air conditioner by yourself.
If you have any question and queries do google it if you still cannot find an answer, do connect us through our contact us page. We will be ready to help.
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Resource & Citations