Air Conditioners: How Important Are The Looks?

When we decide to buy an air conditioner, one of the primary things that concern us is how the unit would look. Of course we also debate about the brand, the price and other things, but the looks always seem to be crucial in our buying decision. In fact, many companies try to sell their products highlighting the looks of the unit rather than the functionality. The idea is that all air conditioners at the end of the day will cool the rooms. The distinguishing factor would be how good they look. But really, how crucial are the looks of an air conditioner.

In a way they are. Just like any of the furniture in your room, the air conditioner too would be visible and you surely wouldn?t want a odd and ugly looking thing jutting out of your window or wall. It should ideally blend in with the d?cor of the room. At least it shouldn?t be messing up if not adding to the style of your interiors.

But are the looks of an air conditioner worth the kind of attention it gets. Frankly, no. there are much more important things about an air conditioner that needs to be taken account of, but are not. Like the efficiency of an air conditioner.

There would be only a select few who actually give a second thought about the efficiency of an air conditioner. However, having an efficient air conditioner means you are going to save on your electricity bills. And the savings you can achieve can be quite something. In fact, you can save anything around 30 to 40 percent of the running costs of an air conditioner with a more efficient air conditioner.

We also hardly have a clue as to what capacity air conditioner we need for our room. To know that we first need to be sure about the dimensions of our room. And after that we can either do some reading and calculate ourselves the capacity of air conditioner we need or we can enlist the help of an expert, an experienced air conditioner contractor.


Besides these things we also need to consider the sound that the unit produces. It is alright hat you have a sleek looking air conditioner in your living room, but you definitely wouldn?t want a constant noise to mess up the environment. So look out for that bit too.

Jason Uvios writes about "Air Conditioners: How Important Are the Looks?" to visit it:- air conditioner, air condition and air ozonators.

Cars And Air Conditioners

We are so used to the concept of an air conditioner that we hardly take notice of it. That is only until it stops working. And then we have a serious issue at hand and at times we are clueless as to what exactly the problem is and how to tackle it.

The air conditioners have become so integral to our lives that we cannot think of living without it. First it came to our offices and factories. Then we brought them to our homes. And now we have them even in our cars. Come to think of it, it is actually essential to have an air conditioner in your car. Of course the interiors of a car is more affected by the heat of the sun than the interiors of your house or office are. And there would be additional heat from the engine to deal with. So it is quite necessary to have a car air conditioned. And it is equally important to see to it that you take proper care of the unit so that it delivers when you need it to and doesn?t break down.

It has been seen these days that to repair older air conditioners it is costing one a few hundred bucks more than it used to. This is primarily because of the regulations that have brought about a change in the refrigerants being used. The previously used R-12 refrigerant, popularly known as Freon has been replaced by R-134a. This is considered to be environmentally safer.

Since you cannot mix the two kinds of refrigerants, so any repair now would mean that you have to flush out the existing refrigerant and fill it up with the newer approved refrigerant. This will obviously increase the costs of fixing your car air conditioner.

The best way to avoid costly repairs would be to check the auto air conditioning system once every year. There are many automotive service station which would provide special check-ups before the summer seasons. You can also go for a bundle check-up where your entire car, including the air conditioner is fine tuned. This would also cut down your maintenance costs.

Since having an air conditioner in your car is a sizeable investment it would be prudent to have it functioning properly. If that would mean regular check-ups then so be it. And it is only once a year. So it shouldn?t be too much of a problem.

Jason Uvios writes on "Cars and Air Conditioners" to visit it:- air conditioner reviews, window air conditioner and air conditioners for sale

Mechanical Air Conditioners - Part I - Operating Principle

Mechanical air conditioners form the largest population of AC in this world. This article will go through the simple operating principles of this AC type. Additionally, we'll also go through other AC types used in commercial world. Namely, these are gas absorption, steam based, and thermoelectric units.

Common ACs, that we see almost everywhere on this globe, is actually, the mechanical type of AC unit. If we were to be very meticulous in the naming structure, we would have called it Mechanical ACs.

However, we just name it as air conditioner, or ACs, and everyone understands it.

One should not confuse the term between, air conditioning, and AC. Air conditioning means altering temperature, humidity, air filtration, movement and mixing. Whilst ACs are the equipment used to alter the temperature and humidity - in one package.

There are four types of ACs available for us. The,

• gas absorption AC,

• steam based AC,

• thermoelectric AC, and

• the mechanical AC

The first three AC types are mainly (if not totally) used in industrial applications. We'll go through the air conditioner operation, briefly, before concentrating on mechanical air conditioners.

Gas absorption AC

Uses, water as its refrigerant. The system uses the principle of vacuum, to encourage boiling of water at very low temperature. The water will be passed through cooling coil, for producing cool air.

Lithium bromide will be used as the absorption (or recovery) medium, once the water has passed through the cooling coil.

Steam based ACs

Is similar to gas absorption units, but it uses the brute power of steam, and venturi, to reduce the pressure of water (which is the refrigerant).

Water at low pressure will boil at low temperature, and becomes a refrigerant.

Thermoelectric AC

This AC uses the principle of thermocouple to attain heating and cooling effects at the same time. The beauty of this system lies in its simplicity of construction.

It uses electrical power, and thermocouple. As the electricity flows through the circuit, you'll get a hot region, and a cold region. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.

However, the major limitation of this concept is that, it can only produce a small cooling or heating effect, compared to other air conditioners.

Mechanical Air Conditioners

It is named mechanical, as it requires the continuous act of refrigerant compression for cooling, or heating effect. This concept was thought by Willis Haviland Carrier, when he created the first mechanical air conditioner.

Special refrigerant are used in order to achieve this. These are known as CFCs (already banned), HCFCs and, HFCs. Why use these? Because of very low boiling temperatures, at ambient pressure.

Details of this air conditioner operation,

• a compression process is required to raise the pressure of refrigerant. When this happens, you can liquefy the refrigerant (through condensation) easily,

• this is followed by refrigerant condensation. Condensation happens through heat exchange between refrigerant, and air (or water),

• an expansion device (or valve) will be placed after the condenser. This is a device to allow for pressure build up from compressor. This is also, the place where refrigerant will evaporate into low pressure region.

  When this happens refrigerant will start to boil at very low temperatures,

• finally, the refrigerant will be passed through another heat exchanger - to complete the boiling process. Heat exchange happens between air and refrigerant

• this process repeats at the compression side

Those are the processes involved in achieving cool air, through mechanical air conditioners - through continuous "supply" of refrigerant at low temperatures.

Part II is coming soon...

TS Mohamed Rasied,
Provides information on air conditioners and air conditioning in her site,
http://www.air-conditioner-selection.com/
 

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The Essential Guide To Buying And Maintaining An Air Conditioner

Central air conditioners take air from the outside and filter it while simultaneously letting the old air out. The more powerful versions of this item are so powerful that they have to be kept away from children or else they might get hurt. The reason they are so powerful is to provide air to multiple rooms at once.

1. Thinking About Choosing A Free Standing Or Central Unit

One of the major benefits of using a central air system over a free standing system is that the outdoors nature of the unit means you will have much lower noise levels inside your home. Of course, being outside carries with it added concerns - you will need to keep the unit free of snow and other obstructions in order for it to work properly. It also is considerably more expensive than a free standing unit.

2. Should You Get A Cover For Your Air Conditioner?

A solid investment is a cover for your central air system. Not only will it keep debris like snow and leaves out, but it will significantly extend the life of your unit. They also keep dust and small insects away from the body of the air conditioner and its different components. Some better-quality Covers can also absorb the vibration of the air conditioner, and reduce the noise it creates.

3. Changing Your Filter Is Essential

If you suffer from allergies, have a baby, or have trouble sleeping at night, you might want to consider getting an air conditioner even if you don't have trouble staying cool during summertime. As a thin layer of dust appears on the filter it becomes more difficult for the machine to pass air through. Eventually it will become so difficult that the machine will break down. For this reason, and the health of your family, it is an excellent idea to change the filter as often as you can.
For more great air conditioner related articles and resources check out http://topairconditioners.info

Buy a Room Air Conditioner That is Right For Your and Your Family

Follow these tips and buy an efficient, durable air conditioner to keep your home and family cool and happy.

If you don't have central air conditioning in your house, you may already know that the cost to install a central air conditioning unit is expensive and the installation can be a nightmare. These units can cost $4,000 to $10,000 to install depending on the size and configuration of your house and the available ductwork.

If you decided to consider a room air conditioner instead, you are like millions of others who opt for the simple, less expensive route to cooling their home during the hot summer. But there are so many room air conditioners out there. The choices are confusing!

Before you buy an air conditioner, consider where you want to put the unit. A room air conditioner is vented through a window or a hole in the wall, so you will need a suitable sized window OR clear wall space where you can cut a hole to vent the unit to the outside. Consider the cost of having a carpenter cut a hole in the wall and insulate it so that you don't lose air around the unit during the winter.

Next, you need to think about the square footage you want to cool with your air conditioner. The unit you need for a small bedroom is different than what you will need to cool a living room or family room.

The capacity of a room air conditioning unit is measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units) to tell you the size of the room that air conditioning unit will cool. Measure your room or cooling area before you go to the store to buy the air conditioner.

If you are looking at a used air conditioner, be sure you check the age of the unit, its BTU rating AND the efficiency of the air conditioner. Old units are not efficient in their use of electricity. You may save something on the purchase price, but it will cost you a lot more in electricity over the year.

Some new units also have automatic thermostats to turn off the air conditioner, as necessary to keep the room temperature constant.

Check the environmental efficiency rating on new units versus the used air conditioner you are considering. You want to look for environmental efficiency to be sure that the unit does not damage the ozone layer.

You should also check the available warranty on the air conditioner you buy. Check to see what parts and major components are covered by the warranty and for how long.

Less expensive air conditioning units may cost you more in the long run if the parts and major components are not covered by a good warranty. Reputable brands cover major components for ten years, and warranty smaller parts for 1-5 years.

Reduce the electricity cost to run your air conditioner by keeping your blinds and drapes closed on hot days. This helps to reduce the build-up of heat in your house so your air conditioner does not have to work as hard or as long.

Clean the vents and filters on your air conditioner as recommended by the user manual, to ensure that your air conditioning unit is running at maximum efficiency.

Learn everything you need to know to buy a room air conditioner that is right for you and your home. Visit our website: Room Air Conditioner

Raleigh Renfree hates to be to hot! He has search through a number of different air conditioning options. See what he has learned.Learn everything you need to know to buy a room air conditioner that is right for you and your home. Visit our website: http://www.airconditioningdnld.com/airconditioning

Air Conditioners - How to Cut Running Costs in Half

In today's world, most people have invested in one form of an air conditioner or another. We have either window air conditioners in our homes or central air conditioners. They keep us cool in the extreme summer heat without fail; however, have you ever set back and looked at the costs of running an air conditioner? When compared to the common household fan the amount of electricity required to run an air conditioner is phenomenal.

When using an air conditioner there are many different factors that can directly affect the cost of running it. These factors include the geographical location of your home, where you live and the amount of work the air conditioner has to do greatly influence the cost. If you live in an area that has mild summers and extremely cold winters, obviously your air conditioner will not have to work as hard. However, if you live in an area, that has warm winters and boiling summers the air conditioner will have to work double time to maintain comfort.

The difference in weather conditions from year to year will affect the costs as well. This is basically geared towards the difference in costs per year. One summer might be cooler than the next, which will lead to a greater bill.

The efficiency rating of your air conditioner plays an important role in the amount of electricity used. Most all appliances in today's world are rated, when you purchase an air conditioner it will have a tag telling you the amount of electricity that appliance uses. Look for air conditioners that use minimal electricity, which will save you money each year. If you have a model that is 10 years or older, it is definitely time to consider a new one.

Another important factor is the size of the air conditioner versus the house-cooling load. All air conditioners come in different sizes, and each will state the amount of space it is designed to cool. For example, an apartment could do with just one or two window air conditioners, while a three-bedroom house could not. Closely consider the amount of space you need to cool when considering an air conditioner. While larger air conditioners will cost more money, it will typically save you money in the long run on usage.

The setting on your thermostat greatly effects the cost. A higher setting will result in the air conditioner running less, while lowering the setting will cause it to run more often. One electric company suggests keeping the thermostat above 78 degrees. This can save you 10 to 20% on cooling costs.

Finally, the local cost of electricity influences the general cost of running your air conditioner. This is something you have no control over, however, you can control your own cost by saving energy.

Here is a general look at the difference of running an air conditioner vs. running a Ceiling or oscillating fan, at medium speed.

Running a central air conditioner that is three ton (and of average efficiency) for 8 hours per day for 15 days per month, with the average rate per kWh (kilowatt per hour) being 0.17, the average cost per month for the air conditioner alone will be $97.92. Amazing isn't it? This does not even include washer, dryer, lights, refrigerator, or stove, only the air conditioner.

On the other hand, running a ceiling fan or oscillating fan at medium speed, for 8 hours per day, for a full 30 days, at an average rate per kWh of 0.035 is only $1.43. With this comparison you could run 68 ? fans for a full month before you would reach the cost of the central air conditioning unit.

There are many other things you can do to lower you electric bill. Things such as, inspect, clean, or replace your air conditioner filters monthly. When you are not in your home, raise the temperature on your thermostat, keeping in mind pets when you do. Lower the temperature of your water heater to 120 degrees, wash only full loads in your dishwasher or clothes washer, and use the energy saving cycle on the dryer.

Other steps you can take include, replacing incandescent bulbs with fluorescent lamps, this could save up to 75% on lighting costs. You should also caulk all windows, doors, and pipes to prevent air leaks in or out, use weather stripping around windows, doors and pipes as well. Have your ducts tested for air leaks; leaking ducts can reduce the efficiency of your air conditioner by up to 20%.

Ethan K. Roberts writes on a variety of topics not limited to air conditioners. Also available are more articles on room air conditioners and air conditioner rental.

For a Healthy Greenhouse Supply Good Air Ventilation

For optimal functioning of your greenhouse, supply sufficient air ventilation at all times.

The air inside a greenhouse is heated by re-radiation of solar energy by objects inside the greenhouse, or, sometimes, by means of artificial heating.

It may reach a point where the temperature inside the greenhouse grows uncomfortably high for the plants. If this happens, you need to implement a good greenhouse ventilation system to exchange some of the warm air inside for cooler air from outside.

Because warm air rises, it is convenient to allow it to escape through vents at the highest point of the greenhouse. Cool air can gain access through natural means - for instance, leaks where glass overlaps - or through side vents set lower down in the sides of the greenhouse. It's especially important to provide lean-to or circular greenhouses, or greenhouses used to grow alpine plants, with an adequate fresh air supply.

A rule of thumb for small greenhouses is that the vents should be equal to 25 - 30 percent of the floor area.

It's best to have an automated system to control the opening and closing of vents. This can be achieved by thermostatically controlled electric motors, or, on a smaller scale, by expansion vent units. Roof vents are best positioned alternately on both sides of the roof, with side vents set to match. Don't forget - if side vents are placed at ground level, you need to cover them with wire netting to prevent unwanted guests like mice or cats from gaining access to the greenhouse.

To prevent cold or wet spots, circulating fans can be used to mix the air inside the greenhouse. Extractor fans will pull air out of the greenhouse, and you obviously need a means of allowing fresh air in to replace the lost air. It's possible to use fans to pull air into a greenhouse, but, in practice, extractor fans work more reliably. Air vents are the normally preferred means of allowing air in.

Extractor fans are controlled by an air thermostat - and they must be large enough to move sufficient quantities of air. A good greenhouse supply retailer should be able to recommend the best type of fan for your requirements. Normal domestic extractor fans are not suitable - those used in greenhouses have larger blades which turn more slowly.

Moisture jets or absorbent pads can be used alongside fans to add or remove moisture from the incoming air to help maintain the correct humidity level in the greenhouse atmosphere. With a little planning and forethought it's quite easy to maintain a good greenhouse supply of fresh air to keep your plants happy!

For resources and information on all aspects of this fascinating hobby visit greenhouse supply now!

Job Demand High for Qualified HVAC Recruits

Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning systems (HVAC) are in for hot job prospects and cool wages. Also known as climate control, those who are trained to perform maintenance, repair and install HVAC systems will see an increase in employment faster than average for other occupations. This is according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), through the year 2014.

What is a Typical HVAC Job Like?

An HVAC mechanic must be skilled in many aspects. Hospitals, schools, office buildings, malls, and apartment buildings have very complicated climate systems in place that can only be cared for by highly skilled and trained professionals. Most of the time after graduating from a HVAC program, you can usually choose a job that focuses on either installation or maintenance and repair. There are other areas of expertise in HVAC involving hydraulics (water-based heating systems), solar panels, or commercial refrigeration.

HVAC mechanics and installers are skilled in using high-powered tools like metal snips, electric drills, pipe cutters and benders, measurement gauges, and acetylene torches, which assist in the repair of refrigerant lines and air ducts. During training, you'll also get familiar with reading things like voltmeters, pressure gauges, manometers, and other testing devices that monitor airflow, refrigerant pressure, electrical circuits, burners, and other components.

Learning the HVAC Ropes

The objective of the Refrigeration School, Inc. is to train and prepare students for entry level positions. A student is required to complete each phase of training with a proven degree of competency and, upon successful completion of the course; the student will have the necessary skills to enter these fields. Students study theory, design, equipment construction, electronics, as well as the basics of installation, maintenance, and repair. It is understood that to become an expert in any field requires dedication, hard work, and continued schooling, and most certainly having or acquiring the proper attitude, drive and motivation.

While HVAC mechanics of years past might have learned on the job, as equipment becomes more efficient and the industry adopts more energy saving devices most employers expect you to have completed HVAC training. The Refrigeration School, Inc. is accredited by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and

Colleges of Technology, and complies with all local, state, and federal regulations. RSI is licensed to operate by the Arizona State Board for Private Postsecondary Education and is a Member of the Arizona Private School Association.

For more information on HVAC jobs and careers. please visit our HVAC Education websites.