Understanding Your Home Air Conditioning Unit

1 / 2
Don't sweat and suffer all summer long. Let your air conditioner keep you cool and comfortable.
Don't sweat and suffer all summer long. Let your air conditioner keep you cool and comfortable.
2 / 2
The inside of an air conditioner.
The inside of an air conditioner.

Approximately 57 million U.S. households (roughly 60%) have air conditioners, with an energy consumption equivalent to the output of seven large coal power plants, and at a cost to homeowners of $9.8 billion. That amount of electric energy results in the release of about 100 million tons of carbon dioxide per year, or a little under two tons per year on average for every home with air-conditioning. Furthermore, air conditioner use in the United States has increased more than 20% since 1984. Seventy-five percent of new homes are being outfitted with central air-conditioning systems, reports Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration News, including over half the homes in the Northeast. A switch to high-efficiency air conditioners and measures to reduce cooling loads in homes can reduce this energy use by 20-50%

Air-Conditioning Basics
 

Air-conditioning, or cooling, is more complicated than heating. Instead of using energy to create heat, air conditioners use energy to take heat away. The most common air-conditioning system uses a compressor cycle (similar to the one used by your refrigerator) to transfer heat from your house to the outdoors.

How is this done? A compressor is filled with a special fluid called a refrigerant (usually HCFC 22, one of the environmentally notorious chlorofluorocarbons). One of the chemical’s properties is that it can change back and forth between liquid and gas. As it changes, it absorbs or releases heat. Thus, it is used to “carry” heat from one place to another, such as from the inside of a refrigerator to the outside, or-using an air conditioner from the inside of a house to the outside. Simple, right? Well, no. And the process gets quite a bit more complicated with all the controls and valves involved.

  • Published on Jun 1, 1993
Online Store Logo
Need Help? Call 1-800-234-3368