Air Conditioners

Of all the many devices created to help you stay cool indoors during hot weather, air conditioners are generally considered to be the most effective and, because of this, they are the most popular.

Air conditioners come in a variety of forms, designs and each has its own specific functions for cooling in certain situations as needed.

On this page, I'll look at the more common major types and explain what they are, how they are best employed and why.

Central Air Conditioning

Arguably the most effective way to keep a building like a home cool in summer is to have a central air conditioning system installed. This solution will cool the entire house from the central cooling equipment that distributes cold air throughout the building via ducting to each room.

The cold air is circulated throughout the building while the unwanted warm moist air is taken out and exhausted to an external condenser that releases it to the outside air.

This type of system is highly convenient and the internal temperature of the whole house is easily controlled by a single thermostat. It is literally set-and-forget so that the occupants of the house don't need to even think about what is happening in the machinery that is keeping them comfortably cool.

Ductless Mini-Split Air Conditioners

A more versatile means of cooling a home (or office or indoor work place), the zoned, ductless mini-split AC system works by installing a standalone cooling unit in each room, that is connected to an external condenser outside the building. Each cooler is controlled by its own remote control for temperature and air circulation volume.

This type of cooling system is not as powerful as a central AC system, but can be a lot more efficient in terms of economy. The main feature is that only the rooms that are occupied can be cooled while units installed in unoccupied rooms can be left turned off.

This represents a saving in energy consumption and ultimately saving the homeowner money when it comes to pay the utility bill.

Another important feature is that as each room is controlled independently of the others, the temperature can be set to suit the comfort level required by its occupants, which may be different from people in other rooms. This is something that is not readily accomplished by central systems that have only a single thermostat to control the temperature of the whole building.

Window Air Conditioners

A less expensive alternative to zone AC units in each room is to install a window AC unit to a suitable window opening in each room. These come as a single unit, unlike mini-split AC that has an internal cooler and an external condenser.

The window unit installs directly to a window opening and blows cold air into the room while expelling warm, moist air directly outside without any need of pipes or ducting. This is a favored solution for many that find it too expensive to install mini-split AC or a central system.

Portable Air Conditioners

At the lower end of the purchase cost come the portable AC units. These come in a variety of sized and power outputs but are essentially free standing units on wheels that can be moved from room to room as needed.

The major disadvantage of portable AC units is that they must be connected to an external venting port, either through a window fixing kit that is usually supplied with the unit or through a custom build wall vent. The connection is via a large, flexible plastic hose that many people find ugly and cumbersome.

The need for an external exhaust connection limits the portability of these units, as the vent hose needs to be disconnected in one room and them connected to a wall or window vent port in the next room it is needed in.

Ventless Portable Air Conditioners

There is another class of air cooling device that are advertised as portable vent free air conditioners, but these are not really true conventional air conditioning units..

So, portable air conditioner ventless models are actually evaporative coolers that produce cold air in an entirely different way than true AC devices.

Evaporative coolers, also called swamp coolers cool the air by evaporation, much the same way as a person's skin feels cold when they perspire and experience a breeze. Since these coolers do not employ the same refrigeration process used by AC, they only use a fraction of the energy, making them highly economical.

The great disadvantage of swamp coolers is they don't work when the atmosphere is very humid, which accounts for a large percentage of the United States apart from inland desert areas that have very dry air during the hot season.

Conclusion

There is more to know about how we can create a cool and comfortable atmosphere inside our homes and places of work. See the related articles published on this site below.

External Resources:

Here are some useful external resources you can check out too:

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/portable-air-conditioner-ventless

https://s3.amazonaws.com/portable-air-conditioner-no-vent

https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/central-air-conditioning

https://www.energystar.gov/products/heating_cooling/ductless_heating_cooling

https://www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/ergonomics/ergship/aircond.html

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Air Conditioning in the Home