Air conditioning

Air conditioning is the cooling of indoor air for thermal comfort. In a broader sense, the term can refer to any form of cooling, heating, ventilation, or disinfection that modifies the condition of air. An air conditioner (often referred to as AC or air con.) is an appliance, system, or machine designed to stabilise the air temperature and humidity within an area (used for cooling as well as heating depending on the air properties at a given time), typically using a refrigeration cycle but sometimes using evaporation, commonly for comfort cooling in buildings and motor vehicles.

The concept of air conditioning is known to have been applied in Ancient Rome, where aqueduct water was circulated through the walls of certain houses to cool them. Similar techniques in medieval Persia involved the use of cisterns and wind towers to cool buildings during the hot season. Modern air conditioning emerged from advances in chemistry during the 19th century, and the first large-scale electrical air conditioning was invented and used in 1902 by Willis Haviland Carrier.

History

The 2nd century Chinese inventor Ding Huan (fl. 180) of the Han Dynasty invented a rotary fan for air conditioning, with seven wheels 3 m (9.8 ft) in diameter and manually powered. In 747, Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712–762) of the Tang Dynasty (618–907) had the Cool Hall (Liang Tian) built in the imperial palace, which the Tang Yulin describes as having water-powered fan wheels for air conditioning as well as rising jet streams of water from fountains. During the subsequent Song Dynasty (960–1279), written sources mentioned the air conditioning rotary fan as even more widely used.

In the 17th century Cornelius Drebbel demonstrated "turning Summer into Winter" for James I of England by adding salt to water.

In 1758, Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley, a chemistry professor at Cambridge University, conducted an experiment to explore the principle of evaporation as a means to rapidly cool an object. Franklin and Hadley confirmed that evaporation of highly volatile liquids such as alcohol and ether could be used to drive down the temperature of an object past the freezing point of water. They conducted their experiment with the bulb of a mercury thermometer as their object and with a bellows used to "quicken" the evaporation; they lowered the temperature of the thermometer bulb down to 7°F while the ambient temperature was 65°F. Franklin noted that soon after they passed the freezing point of water (32°F) a thin film of ice formed on the surface of the thermometer's bulb and that the ice mass was about a quarter inch thick when they stopped the experiment upon reaching 7°F. Franklin concluded, "From this experiment, one may see the possibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day".

In 1820, British scientist and inventor Michael Faraday discovered that compressing and liquefying ammonia could chill air when the liquefied ammonia was allowed to evaporate. In 1842, Florida physician John Gorrie used compressor technology to create ice, which he used to cool air for his patients in his hospital in Apalachicola, Florida. He hoped eventually to use his ice-making machine to regulate the temperature of buildings. He even envisioned centralized air conditioning that could cool entire cities. Though his prototype leaked and performed irregularly, Gorrie was granted a patent in 1851 for his ice-making machine. His hopes for its success vanished soon afterwards when his chief financial backer died; Gorrie did not get the money he needed to develop the machine. According to his biographer, Vivian M. Sherlock, he blamed the "Ice King", Frederic Tudor, for his failure, suspecting that Tudor had launched a smear campaign against his invention. Dr. Gorrie died impoverished in 1855 and the idea of air conditioning faded away for 50 years.

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Designed to improve manufacturing process control in a printing plant, Carrier's invention controlled not only temperature but also humidity. Carrier used his knowledge of the heating of objects with steam and reversed the process. Instead of sending air through hot coils, he sent it through cold coils (ones filled with cold water). The air blowing over the cold coils cooled the air, and one could thereby control the amount of moisture the colder air could hold. In turn, the humidity in the room could be controlled. The low heat and humidity were to help maintain consistent paper dimensions and ink alignment. Later, Carrier's technology was applied to increase productivity in the workplace, and The Carrier Air Conditioning Company of America was formed to meet rising demand. Over time, air conditioning came to be used to improve comfort in homes and automobiles as well. Residential sales expanded dramatically in the 1950s.

In 1906, Stuart W. Cramer of Charlotte, North Carolina was exploring ways to add moisture to the air in his textile mill. Cramer coined the term "air conditioning", using it in a patent claim he filed that year as an analogue to "water conditioning", then a well-known process for making textiles easier to process. He combined moisture with ventilation to "condition" and change the air in the factories, controlling the humidity so necessary in textile plants. Willis Carrier adopted the term and incorporated it into the name of his company. This evaporation of water in air, to provide a cooling effect, is now known as evaporative cooling.

The first air conditioners and refrigerators employed toxic or flammable gases like ammonia, methyl chloride, and propane which could result in fatal accidents when they leaked. Thomas Midgley, Jr. created the first chlorofluorocarbon gas, Freon, in 1928.

Freon is a trademark name owned by DuPont for any Chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), Hydrogenated CFC (HCFC), or Hydrofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant, the name of each including a number indicating molecular composition (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 R-22. It is to be phased out for use in new equipment by 2010 and completely discontinued by 2020. R-12 was the most common blend used in automobiles in the US until 1994 when most changed to R-134A. R-11 and R-12 are no longer manufactured in the US for this type of application, the only source for air conditioning purchase being the cleaned and purified gas recovered from other air conditioner systems. Several non-ozone depleting refrigerants have been developed as alternatives, including R-410A, invented by Honeywell (formerly AlliedSignal) in Buffalo, and sold under the Genetron (R) AZ-20 name. It was first commercially used by Carrier under the brand name Puron.

Innovation in air conditioning technologies continues, with much recent emphasis placed on energy efficiency, and on improving indoor air quality. Reducing climate change impact is an important area of innovation, because in addition to greenhouse gas emissions associated with energy use, CFCs, HCFCs and HFCs are, themselves, potent greenhouse gases when leaked to the atmosphere. For example, R-22 (also known as HCFC-22) has a global warming potential about 1,800 times higher than CO₂. As an alternative to conventional refrigerants, natural alternatives like CO₂ (R-744) have been proposed.

Air conditioning applications

An air conditioner.

Air conditioning engineers broadly divide air conditioning applications into comfort and process.

Comfort applications aim to provide a building indoor environment that remains relatively constant in a range preferred by humans despite changes in external weather conditions or in internal heat loads.

Air conditioning makes deep plan buildings feasible, for otherwise they'd have to be built narrower or with light wells so that inner spaces receive sufficient outdoor air via natural ventilation. Air conditioning also allows buildings to be taller since wind speed increases significantly with altitude making natural ventilation impractical for very tall buildings. Comfort applications for various building types are quite different and may be categorized as

• Low-Rise Residential buildings, including single family houses, duplexes, and small apartment buildings
• High-Rise Residential buildings, such as tall dormitories and apartment blocks
• Commercial buildings, which are built for commerce, including offices, malls, shopping centers, restaurants, etc.
• Institutional buildings, which includes hospitals, governmental, academic, and so on.
• Industrial spaces where thermal comfort of workers is desired.

In addition to buildings, air conditioning can be used for many types of transportation — motor-cars and other land vehicles, trains, ships, aircraft, and spacecraft.

Process applications aim to provide a suitable environment for a process being carried out, regardless of internal heat and humidity loads and external weather conditions. Although often in the comfort range, it is the needs of the process that determine conditions, not human preference. Process applications include these:

• Hospital operating theatres, in which air is filtered to high levels to reduce infection risk and the humidity controlled to limit patient dehydration. Although temperatures are often in the comfort range, some specialist procedures such as open heart surgery require low temperatures (about 18 °C, 64 °F) and others such as neonatal relatively high temperatures (about 28 °C, 82 °F).
• Cleanrooms for the production of integrated circuits, pharmaceuticals, and the like, in which very high levels of air cleanliness and control of temperature and humidity are required for the success of the process.
• Facilities for breeding laboratory animals. Since many animals normally only reproduce in spring, holding them in rooms at which conditions mirror spring all year can cause them to reproduce year-round.
• Aircraft air conditioning. Although nominally aimed at providing comfort for passengers and cooling of equipment, aircraft air conditioning presents a special challenge because of the changing density associated with changes in altitude, humidity and temperature of the outside air.
• Data centers
• Textile factories
• Physical testing facilities
• Plants and farm growing areas
• Nuclear facilities
• Chemical and biological laboratories
• Mines
• Industrial environments
• Food cooking and processing areas

In both comfort and process applications, the objective may be to not only control temperature, but also humidity, air quality and air movement from space to space.

Humidity control

Air conditioning units outside a classroom building at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, North Carolina

Refrigeration air conditioning equipment usually reduces the humidity of the air processed by the system. The relatively cold (below the dewpoint) evaporator coil condenses water vapor from the processed air, (much like an ice-cold drink will condense water on the outside of a glass), sending the water to a drain and removing water vapor from the cooled space and lowering the relative humidity. Since humans perspire to provide natural cooling by the evaporation of perspiration from the skin, drier air (up to a point) improves the comfort provided. The comfort air conditioner is designed to create a 40% to 60% relative humidity in the occupied space. In food retailing establishments, large open chiller cabinets act as highly effective air dehumidifying units.

A specific type of air conditioner that is used only for dehumidifying is called a dehumidifier. A dehumidifier is different from a regular air conditioner in that both the evaporator and condenser coils are placed in the same air path, and the entire unit is placed in the environment that is intended to be conditioned (in this case dehumidified), rather than requiring the condenser coil to be outdoors. Having the condenser coil in the same air path as the evaporator coil produces warm, dehumidified air. The evaporator (cold) coil is placed first in the air path, dehumidifying the air exactly as a regular air conditioner does. The air next passes over the condenser coil re-warming the now dehumidified air. Note that the terms "condenser coil" and "evaporator coil" do not refer to the behavior of water in the air as it passes over each coil; instead they refer to the phases of the refrigeration cycle. Having the condenser coil in the main air path rather than in a separate, outdoor air path (as in a regular air conditioner) results in two consequences—the output air is warm rather than cold, and the unit is able to be placed anywhere in the environment to be conditioned, without a need to have the condenser outdoors.

Unlike a regular air conditioner, a dehumidifier will actually heat a room just as an electric heater that draws the same amount of power (watts) as the dehumidifier. A regular air conditioner transfers energy out of the room by means of the condensor coil, which is outside the room (outdoors). This is a thermodynamic system where the room serves as the system and energy is transferred out of the system. Conversely with a dehumidifier, no energy is transferred out of the thermodynamic system (room) because the air conditioning unit (dehumidifier) is entirely inside the room. Therefore all of the power consumed by the dehumidifier is energy that is input into the thermodynamic system (the room), and remains in the room (as heat). In addition, if the condensed water has been removed from the room, the amount of heat needed to boil that water has been added to the room. This is the inverse of adding water to the room with an evaporative cooler.

Dehumidifiers are commonly used in cold, damp climates to prevent mold growth indoors, especially in basements. They are also sometimes used in hot, humid climates for comfort because they reduce the humidity which causes discomfort (just as a regular air conditioner, but without cooling the room).

The engineering of physical and thermodynamic properties of gas-vapor mixtures is named Psychrometrics.

Health issues

A poorly maintained air-conditioning system can occasionally promote the growth and spread of microorganisms, such as Legionella pneumophila, the infectious agent responsible for Legionnaires' disease, or thermophilic actinomycetes, but as long as the air conditioner is kept clean these health hazards can be avoided. Conversely, air conditioning, including filtration, humidification, cooling, disinfection, etc., can be used to provide a clean, safe, hypoallergenic atmosphere in hospital operating rooms and other environments where an appropriate atmosphere is critical to patient safety and well-being. Air conditioning can have a positive effect on sufferers of allergies and asthma.

In serious heat waves, air conditioning can save the lives of the elderly. Some local authorities have even set up public cooling centers for people without home air conditioning.

Energy use

In a thermodynamically closed system, any energy input into the system that is being maintained at a set temperature (which is a standard mode of operation for modern air conditioners) requires that the energy removal rate from the air conditioner increases. This increase has the effect that for each unit of energy input into the system (say to power a light bulb in the closed system) this requires the air conditioner to remove that energy. In order to do that the air conditioner must increase its consumption by the inverse of its efficiency times the input of energy. As an example, presume that inside the closed system a 100 watt light bulb is activated, and the air conditioner has an efficiency of 200%. The air conditioner's energy consumption will increase by 50 W to compensate for this, thus making the 100 W light bulb use a total of 150 W of energy.

It is typical for air conditioners to operate at "efficiencies" of significantly greater than 100%. However it may be noted that the input (electrical) energy is of higher thermodynamic quality than the output which is basically thermal energy (heat dissipated), See Coefficient of performance.

Automobile air conditioners

Air conditioning systems are designed to allow the driver and or passengers to feel more comfortable during uncomfortably warm, humid, or hot trips in a vehicle. Cars in hot climates often are fitted with air conditioning. There has been much debate and discussion on what the usage of an air conditioner does to the fuel efficiency of a vehicle. Factors such as wind resistance, aerodynamics and engine power and weight have to be factored into finding the true variance between using the air conditioning system and not using it when figuring out difference in actual gas mileage. Other factors on the impact on the engine and an overall engine heat increase can have an impact on the cooling system of the vehicle.

1953 Chrysler Imperial with factory trunk mounted "Airtemp"

The Packard Motor Car Company was the first automobile manufacturer to build air conditioners into its cars, beginning in 1939. These air conditioners were originally optional, and could be installed for an extra $274 (about $4,050 in 2007 dollars). The system took up half of the entire trunk space, was not very efficient, and had no thermostat or independent shut-off mechanism. The option was discontinued after 1941.

In 1954, the Nash Ambassador was the first American automobile to boast front-end, fully-integrated heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system. The Nash-Kelvinator corporation used its experience in refrigeration to introduce the automobile industry's first compact and affordable, single-unit heating and air conditioning system optional for its 1954 Nash models. This was the first system for the mass market with controls on the dash and an electric clutch. Marketed under the name of "All-Weather Eye", the Nash system was "a good and remarkably inexpensive" system. Entirely incorporated within the engine bay, the combined heating and cooling system had cold air for passengers enter through dash-mounted vents. Nash's exclusive "remarkable advance" was not only the "sophisticated" unified system, but also its $345 price that beat all other systems.

Most competing systems used a separate heating system and an engine-mounted compressor, driven off of the crankshaft of the engine via a belt, with an evaporator in the car's trunk to deliver cold air through the rear parcel shelf and overhead vents. General Motors made a front mounted air conditioning system optional in 1954 on Pontiacs with a straight-eight engine that added separate controls and air distribution. The alternative layout pioneered by Nash "became established practice and continues to form the basis of the modern and more sophisticated automatic climate control systems."

The innovation was adopted quickly, and by 1960 about 20% of all cars in the U.S. had air-conditioning, with the percentage increasing to 80% in the warm areas of the Southwest. American Motors made air conditioning standard equipment on all AMC Ambassadors starting with the 1968 model year, a first in the mass market with a base price starting at $2,671. By 1969, 54% of the domestic automobiles were equipped with air conditioning, with the system needed not only for passenger comfort, but also to increase the car's resale value.

Portable air conditioners

A portable air conditioner is one on wheels that can be easily transported inside a home or office. They are currently available with capacities of about 6,000-60,000 BTU/h (1,800-18,000 W output) and with and without electric resistance heaters. Portable air conditioners are either evaporative or refrigerative.

Portable refrigerative air conditioners come in two forms, split and hose. These compressor-based refrigerant systems are air-cooled, meaning they use air to exchange heat, in the same way as a car or typical household air conditioner. Such a system dehumidifies the air as it cools it. It collects water condensed from the cooled air, and produces hot air which must be vented outside the cooled area; doing so transfers heat from the air in the cooled area to the outside air.

A portable split system has an indoor unit on wheels connected to an outdoor unit via flexible pipes, similar to a permanently fixed installed unit.

Hose systems, which can be air-to-air or monoblock, are vented to the outside via air ducts. The monoblock type collects the water in a bucket or tray and stops when full. The air-to-air type re-evaporates the water and discharges it through the ducted hose, and can run continuously.

A single-duct unit draws air out of the room to cool its condenser, and then vents it outside. This air is replaced by hot air from outside or other rooms, thus reducing efficiency. Modern units might have a COP (Coefficient Of Performance, sometimes called "efficiency") of approximately 3 i.e., 1 kW of electricity will produce 3 kW of cooling. A dual-duct unit draws air from outside to cool its condenser instead of from inside the room, and thus is more efficient than most single-duct units.

Evaporative air coolers, sometimes called "swamp air conditioners", do not have a compressor or condenser. Liquid water is evaporated on the cooling fins, releasing the vapour into the cooled area. Evaporating water absorbs a significant amount of heat, the latent heat of vaporisation, cooling the air — humans and other animals use the same mechanism to cool themselves by sweating. Disadvantages are that unless ambient humidity is low (as in a dry climate) cooling is limited and the cooled air is very humid and can feel clammy. They have the advantage of needing no hoses to vent heat outside the cooled area, making them truly portable; and they are very cheap to install and use less energy than refrigerative air conditioners.

Heat pumps

Main article: Heat pump

Heat pump is a term for a type of air conditioner in which the refrigeration cycle is able to be reversed, producing heat instead of cold in the indoor environment. They are also commonly referred to, and marketed as, a reverse cycle air conditioner. Using an air conditioner in this way to produce heat is significantly more efficient than electric resistance heating. Some home-owners elect to have a heat pump system installed, which is actually simply a central air conditioner with heat pump functionality (the refrigeration cycle is reversed in the winter). When the heat pump is enabled, the indoor evaporator coil switches roles and becomes the condenser coil, producing heat. The outdoor condensor unit also switches roles to serve as the evaporator, and produces cold air (colder than the ambient outdoor air).

Heat pumps are more popular in milder winter climates where the temperature is frequently in the range of 40-55°F (4-13°C), because heat pumps become inefficient in more extreme cold. This is due to the problem of the outdoor unit's coil forming ice, which blocks air flow over the coil. To compensate for this, the heat pump system must temporarily switch back into the regular air conditioning mode to switch the outdoor evaporator coil back to being the condensor coil so that it can heat up and de-ice. A heat pump system therefore will have a form of electric resistance heating in the indoor air path that is activated only in this mode in order to compensate for the temporary air conditioning, which would otherwise generate undesirable cold air in the winter. The icing problem becomes much more prevalent with lower outdoor temperatures, so heat pumps are commonly installed in tandem with a more conventional form of heating, such as a natural gas or oil furnace, which is used instead of the heat pump during harsher winter temperatures. In this case, the heat pump is used efficiently during the milder temperatures, and the system is switched to the conventional heat source when the outdoor temperature is lower.

Absorption heat pumps are actually a kind of air-source heat pumps, but they do not depend on electricity to power them. Instead, gas, solar power, or heated water is used as a main power source. Additionally, refrigerant isn’t used at all in the process. To extract heat, an absorption pump absorbs ammonia into water. Next, the water and ammonia mixture is pressurized to induce boiling, and the ammonia is boiled off.

Some more expensive window air conditioning units have the heat pump function. However, a window unit that has a "heat" selection is not necessarily a heat pump because some units use electric resistance heat when heating is desired. A unit that has true heat pump functionality will be indicated in its literature by the term "heat pump".

Professional bodies

American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers

ASHRAE (American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers) is an organization devoted to the advancement of indoor-environment-control technology in the heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) industry. ASHRAE was founded in 1894 to serve as a source of technical standards and guidelines. Since that time, it has grown into an international society that offers educational information, courses, seminars, career guidance, and publications. The organization also promotes a code of ethics for HVAC professionals and provides for liaison with the general public. Its headquarters are in Atlanta, GA.

Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating

The Australian Institute of Refrigeration Air Conditioning and Heating (AIRAH) was founded in 1920 and currently has around 10,000 members. AIRAH is the official Australian secretariat of the International Institute of Refrigeration (IIR) and collaborates closely with the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE).

Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors Association of Australia

The Air Conditioning and Mechanical Contractors Association of Australia (AMCA) is a nation wide industry association dedicated to represent and service the air conditioning and mechanical services industry in Australia. Members of AMCA design, install and provide ongoing service of air conditioning and mechanical ventilation systems.

Air Conditioning Contractors of America (ACCA)

The ACCA is a large organization of American HVACR professionals. They have over four thousand members and have individual charters in each state.

Institute of Refrigeration (IOR)

The IOR was founded in 1899 and represents professional refrigeration and air conditioning engineers in the United Kingdom

Refrigeration Service Engineers Society (RSES)

The Refrigeration Service Engineers Society is a public non profit educational organization devoted to furthering the education and career growth of those who install, troubleshoot and repair air conditioning, ventilation, heating and refrigeration equipment. RSES maintains local chapters in most large cities and most states.

See also

• Ground-coupled heat exchanger
• HVAC
• Seawater air conditioning