What is Air conditioner: Definition and 61 Discussions

Air conditioning (also A/C, air conditioner) is the process of removing heat and controlling the humidity of air in an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior environment by use of powered 'air conditioners' or a variety of other methods including passive cooling and ventilative cooling. Air conditioning is a member of a family of systems and techniques that provide 'heating, ventilation, and air conditioning' (HVAC).
Air conditioners, which typically use vapor-compression refrigeration, range in size from small units used within vehicles or single rooms to massive units that can cool large building. Air source heat pumps, which can be used for heating as well as cooling are becoming increasingly common in cooler climates.
According to the IEA, as of 2018, 1.6 billion air conditioning units were installed which accounted for an estimated 20% of energy usage in buildings globally with the number expected to grow to 5.6 billion by 2050. The United Nations called for the technology to be made more sustainable to mitigate climate change using techniques including passive cooling, evaporative cooling, selective shading, windcatchers and better thermal insulation. Refrigerants used within air conditioners have caused damage to the ozone layer and are also exacerbating climate change.

View More On Wikipedia.org
  1. hagopbul

    Air Conditioner: Cool Your Home Comfortably

    see the file:confused::confused:
  2. P

    How Does an Air Conditioner Alter the Volume, Temperature, and Pressure of Gas?

    I was just pondering the way an air conditioner works, and I have a basic question. When the compressor compresses the gas, how does it change the volume, temperature, and pressure? Using pv=nrt, there does not seem to be a way to figure out what the proportion that temperature and pressure...
  3. K

    An Air Conditioner: Refrigerator or Heat Pump?

    Air conditioners operate on the same principle as refrigerators. Consider an air conditioner that has 7.00 kg of refrigerant flowing through its circuit each cycle. The refrigerant enters the evaporator coils in phase equilibrium, with 54.0% of its mass as liquid and the rest as vapor. It flows...
  4. S

    Calculating Minimum Power for Air Conditioner

    A home is kept cool by an air conditioner. The outside temperature is 311.75K and the interior of the home is 288.55K. If 127kJ/h of heat is removed from the house, what is the minimum power that must be provided to the air-conditioner? answer in kJ/h my work COP = Th / (Th - Tc) = 311.75...
  5. Math Is Hard

    Fine. I'll make my own air conditioner.

    I bought everything I need today at the hardware store to assemble my cooling apparatus from what I have learned from this smart little whippersnapper: http://www.eng.uwaterloo.ca/~gmilburn/ac/ I haven't started working on it yet, but I was wondering about any sort of condensation problems...
  6. H

    Why Must Refrigerant Be Compressed in Air Conditioners?

    I have been trying to learn how home air conditioners work since I had some problems yesterday with my split system. I was reading here: http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/how_it_works/air_conditioner.html This is a stupid question and basic mechanical engineering, but there is something about...
  7. H

    Optimizing Air Conditioner Filter Placement for Maximum Efficiency

    I have 2 places to put air filters on my home system. One is a 16x20x1 at the wall intake and the other is 4ft up the same duct at the unit (16x25x1). The filter in the wall is a pain in the ass to change in comparison to the one at the unit. But, they are both usually dirty at 3 months so I...
  8. Clausius2

    How does an air conditioner start and function in an unsteady state?

    I am interested on understanding the unsteady period of functioning of an air conditioner system, with a traditional refrigerant, let's say R-11. Imagine there is a room which initially is at the same temperature than the external one, i.e. T_i(0)=T_e. Just when I switch on the system, the...
  9. Pengwuino

    Is a Portable Air Conditioner with Water Cooling Feasible for Garage Use?

    One problem that came up for my father and my aunt was that they did not want to work (cleaning my grandfathers garage, he's in a nursing home now :-/) during the summer in the garage. Now i was wondering how feasible is a portable air conditioner? If say, at the 'hot coils', instead of air, you...
  10. B

    What Is the Coefficient of Performance of a Carnot Air Conditioner?

    Hi there, I have what should be a simple problem, but it's driving me insane. Here's the problem: A Carnot air conditioner maintains the temperature in a house at 290 K on a day when the temperature outside is 315 K. What is the coefficient of performance of the air conditioner? So I...
  11. N

    Air conditioner thermodynamics

    Hey, sorry if this is slightly off topic but it's the closest forum i could find that might be able to help me answer my question.. A while back i read a page and a little bit of information on it remained behind in my memory. Basically what it stated was 'the simplest form of overunity is an...
Back
Top