When the temperature starts rising and summer is on its way, thoughts turn to getting the air conditioning basics sorted out so that you're prepared for the heat.
After all, there's nothing quite as satisfying as being able to come inside out of the heat into a cool, comfortable house!
So what are the basics of air conditioning and how will it help you to know some more about the system that keeps you and your family cool during the hot months of the year?
For starters, it's a good idea to know what's lurking under the hood of a home's AC system and what makes the whole thing tick.
Whatever your home's air conditioning system, the chances are its core mechanical working is based around a refrigeration process, so let's talk about that to begin with.
It doesn't matter if you have a large central system, or a collection of individual cooling units in each room, the basic process is the same.
At the heart of an air conditioner is its refrigerant gas compressor and the cooling coils that ″make″ the cold air. The gas is compressed and passed through the cooling coils where the air that is drawn from the room is passed to chill it.
The chilled air gets released back into the room but there is some more to the simple sounding process.
As there is mechanical work being undertaken, a lot of heat is also produced by the process.
A proportion of the moisture held in the air is also removed along with dust particulates through a filter. So the cold air sent into the room is also dry, making it feel cooler and cleaner.
All the heat and moisture needs to go somewhere other than the space being cooled, so it is exhausted from the main cooling unit through ducts to an external condenser unit.
This unit draws out the hot, moist air from the system, condensing and releasing it to the outside.
While this is the general process for fixed units, there is a small difference in the process when we get to portable, free standing air conditioning units.
These work a little differently in that there is no external condenser unit, just the single cooling device you have in the room being cooled. The condensing and exhausting part of the process is carried out inside the unit itself.
Exhausted hot, moist air is sent out of the room via a flexible plastic hose that is connected from the back of the unit to a window bracket or in the cases where a wall vent is installed, through that.
This process has its flaws, but in the whole portable units are very popular thanks mainly to their portability and ability to be placed more or less wherever they need to go.
The main flaw cited by many owners is the exhaust hose itself, which is not the nicest looking component in a room.
Add to the fact that it must be connected to an external port (wall or window) while the unit is in operation to prevent the hot air escaping back into the room and you have an unsightly aspect to this type of cooling appliance.
That would cause a net heating effect in the room, which is not what is wanted!
Another less prominent problem is that portable units need to be drained periodically. This is because the moisture that is condensed inside the unit drips down into a catchment tray that eventually fills up.
This can be a fiddly operation at the best of times, although there are some newer, more technologically advanced models on the market that have overcome this problem by employing a self evaporating air conditioner system that re-evaporates the moisture and exhausts it out through the hose.
There are even WiFi enabled, smart air conditioners available to buy in stores now that make operating the unit remotely even more fun!
Window air conditioner units don't have this problem since they're installed in a window opening with the exhaust section already outside the room. Excess moisture drains through a pipe and can be collected in a bucket somewhere below.
These units are commonly found in older buildings that do not have central air or cannot have mini-split units installed for various reasons. Their main drawback is they take up some window space reducing the amount of natural daylight that can enter the room, but otherwise they do a pretty good job of keeping the room cool during hot weather.
As you can see, there are a number of different ways to cool your home of office space. Each has its own merits and fits into the scheme of your space depending on what you need and what you want.
There is more information and detailed explanations provided in other articles published on this site. That more or less concludes this summary introduction into the world of the workings of air conditioners and how they benefit us.