AIR CONDITIONER - WORKING, OPERATION AND TYPES

MECHANICAL TIPS AND STUDY MATERIALS


Very often we feel the need of a cooling device and heating device in our living place when the weather changes to extreme limits. in 1908 a device called air conditioner was developed for human comfort.

What is air conditioner?

• A air conditioner is a device that helps to remove excess of heat from a system or room and cools it down. At the same time it removes humidity, dust, microbes out of the room and makes the  room fresh and enriched with oxygen.

How does air conditioner works?

• Basically the three major components of air conditioner are :-

1. Evaporator
2. Condenser 
3. Compressor

You might have noticed a window air conditioner which has half the part out side and half is inside of the window. It is because the condenser and the compressor part is located on the building and evaporator is located inside (cooling region) from where heat is to be removed.

Let us understand how it works. When the system is powered, The fan (blower) sucks the hot air of the room though ducts. There is filter placed before the ducts so that no dust, particles enter the machine parts. Inside there is piping arrangement of evaporator, condenser and compressor. The pipe consists of refrigerant   like feron 11 etc. Inside the evaporator pipe the refrigerant is in condensed form. As the fan sucks the heated air of the room and discharges near the evaporator, the condensed refrigerant absorbs heat and becomes liquid.

Then the flowing refrigerant with heat enters compressor where it is further compressed and  both pressure and temperature increases abruptly. At this temperature the liquid refrigerant gets converted to vapour form.

Now finally it enters to third component  called condenser. This is located at outer section exposed to atmosphere. The heated refrigerant is cooled here with breeze of air. Also a fan is used to expels the heat to outer surrounding to cool the refrigerant faster. As a result of this hot refrigerant removes heat to atmosphere and condenses to liquid.

The liquid refrigerant is sent back to absorb heat of the room and process repeats. This is how our room remains cool.

Types of air conditioner available in market:

1) Window air conditioners
2) Split air conditioners
3) Cube air conditioners
4) Tower air conditioners
5) Cassette air conditioners

How to increase efficiency of air conditioners?

• Avoid leakages of refrigerant, as it way reduce cooling done by your AC.
• Clean filter regularly. Trapping of air by dust, pollutant may lead to more load on compressor and parts, hence electrical consumption may increase.
• The compressor should be open to atmosphere. If not, damage can take place and cooling may be affected.