System Maintenance

Routine maintenance like changing filters is manageable by most consumers but others need professional service.

Brush dirt and obstructions from the coils and the drains at the start of each cooling season. This may need a service call from a skilled depending on the system and the consumer.

A system that is not producing as much cold air as is normal could also be an indication of a refrigerant charge or airflow problems which may require servicing.

 

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Reducing the internally generated loads air conditioner must deal with

Air conditioner works better by lowering the size of the job it has to do by improving the building or reducing the internally generated loads that the air conditioner must deal with.

Improving the building “envelope” includes things such as increasing insulation levels or shading windows or dimishing air leakage. These improvements reduce energy spent on heating and cooling, but may need considerable time or investment. Putting in a new roof or new windows is basically cost-effective when using high-efficiency products. “Cool” roofing, for instance saves half a ton of cooling and a lot of energy over the year.

Cutting down of internal loads can be simpler. Shut off unnecessary electrical appliances, lights and equipment. Use washers, dryers and other appliances to cooler times of the day. Remove heat and humidity from kitchens and baths by using local exhaust fan. Buying Energy Star or similarly efficiency appliances helps likewise.

In dry climates evaporative air conditions (swamp coolers) can provide considerable cooling. In climates with large temperature swings, such as the hot, dry climates, reduce the load by bringing in large amounts of cool outdoor air. (known as “night cooling” “ventilative cooling” or “residential economizers”).

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Increasing energy efficiency

Sealing leaky ducts may be the biggest single thing to improve efficiency, but a lot of the issues like replacing dirty filters, keeping the right charge and airflow, cleaning the coils will help as well.

Make sure that the outdoor (condenser) unit is not so hidden from sight to prevent air flow from blocking, avoiding leaves or other matter from clogging it.

Acquire high efficiency equipment when replacing air conditioner. The most generally known efficiency rating is Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating (SEER). SEER 13 is the minimum efficiency to consider, but higher efficiencies are likely to be quite cost-effective.

Depending on the climate, consider other efficiency numbers as well. For example, in hot, dry climates, look at the Energy Efficiency Rating (EER) which says how well the system performs at peak conditions. In a hot, humid climate consider how well the unit can dehumidify.

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The role of air conditioner filters

Almost every air conditioning system has a filter upstream of the evaporator coil, which can be in the return grille or in special slots located at the duct system and can be a fuzzy-looking or a folded paper filter. This get rids of particles from the air stream to both maintain the air conditioning system dirt free and to eliminate particles from the air.

As the filter performs, it’s loaded increasingly with particles, which affects its efficiency, amplifies resistance and reduces airflow. Filter should be changed if this happens, depending on how dirty the air is and how big the filter is.

Without changing the filter, the air flow drops, and the system does not work properly. Filthy filter can be a source or air pollution.

Removing the filter completely would solve the low air flow problem but short lived. The particles that the filter would have taken build up on the evaporator coil and eventually cause a failure. A new filter is a lot inexpensive.

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Regulating costly repair on poor ventilation

Air conditioners are complex mechanical systems that are reliant on a wide variety of conditions to perform suitably. They are sized to meet a specific “load” in the house. They are devised to have particular amount of refrigerant, known as the “charge”. They are designed to have a specific amount of air flow across the coils. The system encounter problems when any of these things changes.

When producing more heat indoors either from having more people or appliances or because of changes in the house, the air conditioning may not be able to sustain.

If the refrigerant charge on the system leaks out, it reduces the capacity of the system, which causes less cooling and the system fails to keep going when the load gets high.

If airflow across the outdoor (condenser) coil is lessened, the capacity to disallow heat outdoors is diminished and then again the capacity of the system may drop, particularly at higher outdoor temperatures.

In Southwest United States where dry climates are expected, the same issues occur concerning with the indoor (evaporator) coil: higher airflow helps, lower airflow hurts. In humid climates, the situation is more complex. At higher airflows, less dehumidification is present, leading to high indoor humidity. If the airflow gets too low, however, the evaporator coil may freeze, causing performance inferior and can damage the compressor until it fails, leaving with costly repair bill and no cooling. 

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Ton of Cooling

Before refrigeration air conditioning was developed, cooling was taken by hoarding big blocks of ice. When cooling machines began to get used, they rated their capacity by the same amount of ice liquefied in a day, which is where the word “ton” arrived from sizing air conditioning.

A ton of cooling is now described as delivering 12,000 BTU/hour of cooling. BTU is short for British Thermal Unit (and is a unit that the British do not use) The BTU is a unit of heating - or in this case, cooling - energy. 

Window type air conditioner is usually less than one ton while a small home central air conditioner is about two tons and a large one is about five tons.

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How does cooling process take place in air conditioner?

The role of air conditioner is to move heat from inside of one’s home to the outside, which provides cooling in the process. Air conditioners blow cool air into the home by pulling the heat out of that air. The air is cooled by blowing it over a set of cold pipes known as evaporator coil. This performs similar to cooling that occurs when water evaporates from human’s skin. 

The evaporator coil is filled with a special liquid known as refrigerant, which changes from liquid to a gas as it takes up heat from the air. The refrigerant is pumped outside the house to another coil where it gives up its heat and changes back into a liquid. This outside coil is named as the condenser since the refrigerant is condensing from a gas back to a fluid similar to moisture on a cold window. 

A pump, known as compressor plays the role of moving the refrigerant between the two coils and to change the pressure of the refrigerant in order that all the refrigerant evaporates or condenses in the suitable coils.

The energy to work out all of this is used by the motor that runs the compressor. The entire system normally provides about three times the cooling energy that the compressor uses. This odd fact occurs since the changing of refrigerant from a liquid to a gas and back again allows the system to move much more energy than the compressor uses.

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