Tuesday, November 27, 2007

Beating The Heat With Air Conditioners

Beating The Heat With Air Conditioners

Don't know if you have noticed but global warming is taking its toll on the world. The once rainy and cool seasons when most people enjoyed warming up to a warm blanket in front of the fireplace now seem irregular with climate change. The heat during summer may even be unbearable for some geographical locations. To avoid sweating like a pig, most people find comfort in the indoors by basking in the cool air and ventilation provided by air conditioners.

In Ancient Rome, aqueduct water was made to flow and circulate through passages in the walls of houses and buildings to provide some sort of ventilation and coolness to the corridors. Further, wind towers and cisterns were utilized in medieval Persia to achieve that cooling effect. Nowadays, all we have to do is push a button, set the temperature and let the air conditioner do its job.

When you come right down to it, an air condition is an appliance that has the ability to extract warmth and heat from a certain area with the use of the refrigeration process. In this cycle, heat is transferred from a heat source with low temperature to a higher temperature heat sink with the use of a heat pump. This naturally results in a steady steam of heat in the opposite direction.

Soothing hotness and providing comfort on sweltering days and warm nights, air conditioners have grown to be a vastly popular addition to homes worldwide. With its increasing demand, an assortment of air conditioning products have spurt in the market offering features that are meant to suit a range of temperature cooling needs. Let us look into some of them.

Window and through-wall units

These air conditioners are usually rectangular in shape and more commonly seen on wall openings or windows of homes, work offices and buildings. There are vents on both sides of the appliance. This is meant to allow the inside air to be cooled by blowing it in and out of the unit with the use of the fan. Concurrently, the outside vent blows the air out of doors in and out with the use of another fan and this works as the heat sink of the unit. These air conditioners are fairly sized and can have the capacity to offer conditioning for only one to two rooms so you may need several units to fully achieve that cool effect for the whole house.

Portable air conditioners

As the name suggests, these units can be transported to any corner or spot effortlessly. Portable air conditioners are literally air conditioners on wheels. This type comes in three forms namely the split, the evaporative and the hose. The split type air conditioner has two units, one indoor and one outdoor. These units are connected by means of flexible pipes. On the other hand, the hose system makes use of air ducts and a condenser. Air is drawn from the room, dehumidified and cooled. Evaporative air conditioners, however, does not make use of a compressor or a condenser. Nonetheless, the system works by using liquid water and releasing it as vapor.

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