Angel Air North East

How Air Conditioning Works

Air Conditioning works in a different way to which many may think. Most people believe that air conditioning units work by filling the room with cold air but the main way it cools you is by removing the hot air that is already in the room.

Explained simply - air conditioning includes both the cooling and heating of air. It also includes cleaning. The purpose of air conditioning is to make our homes / workplaces more comfortable and healthier places to be in.

The Very Basics

The principle of air conditioning always comes down to the same:

absorb energy in one place and release it in another place

The process requires an indoor unit, an outdoor unit and copper piping to connect both. Through the piping the refrigerant flows from one unit to another. It is the refrigerant that absorbs the energy in one unit and releases it in the other.

Cooling Mode

1. Indoor unit
A fan blows the hot indoor air over a heat exchanging coil through which cold refrigerant flows. The cold refrigerant absorbs the heat from the air and cooled air is blown into the room.

2. Copper piping
The refrigerant circulates through the units and the piping and takes the heat from the indoor unit to the outdoor unit.

3. Outdoor unit
Through compression, the refrigerant gas is heated and its boiling point increases. In the outdoor unit the obtained heat through compression is released to the outdoor air by means of a fan which blows the outdoor air over a heat exchanging coil.

Comfort Cooling Solutions

This is a term generally used for air conditioning solutions (heating and cooling) within office areas even though this can extend to warehouse and other working environments. Comfort cooling parameters are generally designed around 23-24° C with no real attention paid to the relative humidity ( RH ) of the space served.

We also install systems to meet specialist demands; examples would include systems for computer rooms or data centres which have seen a growth explosion in recent years or those which require close control.

System Concepts

Inverter systems offer considerably increasing system performance and efficiency, whilst significantly reducing running costs. Inverter products are so efficient and 'green' that the government endorses such installations by allowing companies to claim Enhanced Capital Allowances (ECA's), making this a very tax efficient purchase indeed. For further information, refer to the Government's website on Enhanced Capital Allowances at: http://www.eca.gov.uk.

Systems are totally automated and will switch between heating and cooling as required. Systems are far more efficient to run than conventional electric heating offering a coefficient of performance (COP) of between 2 and 3. In layman's terms, this means every input watt multiplied by the COP gives the output performance in watts or kilowatts. When this is compared to a traditional electric heater offering 1kw input to 1kw output it is clear to see the potential cost savings available.

DX (direct expansion) type air conditioning systems are among the most efficient forms of cooling concepts available as they can incorporate VRV / VRF technology ( Variable Refrigerant Volume / Flow ) using inverter technology outlined above. Direct expansion systems produce a cooling effect via a single process of heat exchange and do not use water as a cooling medium which has many advantages, especially when looking at smaller installations.

System styles can be wall-mounted, ceiling cassettes, ducted or otherwise. A few examples can be seen here