[Date] Air Conditioner

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Air Conditioner

Contents
Air Conditioner .............................................................................................................................................. 2
1.1 History of air conditioner .............................................................................................................. 2
1.2 Working Principle .......................................................................................................................... 3
1.3 Selecting the right size of air conditioner ..................................................................................... 4
1.4 Improvements in efficiencies and life time................................................................................... 5
1.4.1 Minimize the cooling load: .................................................................................................... 6
1.4.2 Minimize the temperature lift: ............................................................................................. 6
References .................................................................................................................................................... 7
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Air Conditioner

Air Conditioner
A system that is used to maintain the temperature, humidity and ventilation in a house or industry.
In warmer conditions, it removes the heat from low temperature to the high temperature.

1.1 History of air conditioner

The art of air conditioning was developed for the cooling, cleaning, heating and ventilating
purposes. In the 15th century Leonardo da Vinci had build a first ventilating fan. Later on the laws
that are based on air conditioning system presented by Boyle in 1959 and Dalton in 1800. The
article on heating and ventilation system was written by Robertson in 1815. In the middle of 19th
century, boilers, fans and radiators had been invented. By Jacob Perkins, vapor compression cycle
was invented in 1834 which used the theory of Professor Alexander that produced 725 kg of ice
per day using a double- acting vacuum and compression pumps. He used the sulphuric acid as a
refrigerant. American Society of Refrigeration Engineers (ASRE) in 1904 were formed by
bringing the number of group members.

The first electrical air conditioning unit was developed by W.H Carrier in 1902 who is known as
the “Father of Air Conditioning”. This air conditioner is used for heating, cooling, humidifying
and dehumidifying purposes. He made use of air washers for maintaining the dew point of air by
heating or chilling recirculated water. Carrier wrote an article related to wet bulb, dry bulb and
dew point temperature of air with its sensible, latent and total heats and presented in the ASRE
meeting. Stuart W. Cramer invested approach to add moisture to the air in his factory and begat
the term “air conditioning.” In 1914 in Minneapolis, the first private home air conditioner was
installed and in 1920s, residential air conditioning was in used mostly.

In 1922 the centrifugal compressor was designed by Carrier. After the invention of Carrier, use of
air conditioning in cotton, rayon and tobacco paper etc. with the passage of time was increased. In
the last 30 years, industries discovered many new refrigerants to make the process more suitable.

The first individual room air conditioning or window unit were come is used in 1931. In 1939, air
conditioning system are used in cars to make the journey more comfortable. By the 1950s, home
cooling had gotten pervasive in America, and by the 1970s, focal air got well known, supplanting
window units as the favored technique for cooling one's home.
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Air Conditioner

1.2 Working Principle

An air conditioner is used for cooling purposes in which heat is removed from the indoor to the
outdoor system. It working principle is same as refrigeration unit. This process is designed totally
on the definition of temperature which is the measure of average kinetic energy of molecules.

There are four major equipment that makes a refrigeration system perfect .

• Evaporator
• Compressor
• Condenser
• Valve

A refrigerant that are used to transfer the heat from lower temperature to higher temperature. Firstly
in the evaporator, refrigerant is present that absorbs heat from the room and convert it in saturated
vapors. The purpose of compressor is to convert the saturated vapors into the superheated vapors.
Its also increase the pressure and convert the potential energy into kinetic energy. Highly
superheated vapors are entered into the condenser which behaves as isothermal and isobaric. It
condensed the vapors and remove the excess amount of heat into the environment. Throttle valve
is used for lowering the pressure and converts the kinetic energy into potential energy and than it
enters into the evaporator and cycle is working in this manner.

Following are the schematic diagram of refrigeration cycle:

Condenser

Throttle Valve Compressor

Evaporator
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1.3 Selecting the right size of air conditioner

Selecting the right size of air conditioner will efficiently and effectively keep the house in
comfortable condition. Air conditioners that are large in size remove excess humidity and use
more electricity. Air conditioner that are too small cannot cool the room to a comfortable
temperature. Choosing the right size we well do some small calculations.

• Measure the area of the room that you'll cool. Utilize a measuring tape to quantify the
length and width of the room. Compose these estimations on your paper. In the event that
the room isn't square or rectangular, separate the room into segments made out of squares
and triangles and take those estimations.
Square footage = length* width
• Calculate the area of the room. For a square or rectangular room, duplicate the length by
the width. In the event that your room is some other shape, locate the area of the three-
sided areas by duplicating 0.5 x length x width and aggregate every one of the square and
three-sided segments to decide the complete area of the room.
For square room:
Square footage = length* width
For triangle shaped room:
Square footage = ½ * length * width

We can determine the cooling capacity of our home or room in term of BTU per hour from the
following table.
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While selection the BTU we should have consider the following factors:

• If ceilings measure higher than 8 feet, you’ll need to expand your BTU level.
• Your room or space is bright during the day, increment your BTUs by 10 percent.
• Your room is concealed for the majority of the day, decline your BTUs by 10 percent.
• In the event that multiple individuals will consume your room or space consistently, you
should include an extra 600 BTUs of cooling power for every individual the event that your
roofs measure higher than 8 feet, you'll need to expand your BTU level.

1.4 Improvements in efficiencies and life time

As we know that air conditioning system consists of four major parts i.e. evaporator, compressor,
condenser and throttle valve. We can increase the efficiency by coefficient of performance.

𝑄𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑
𝐶𝑂𝑃 = =
𝑊 𝑇ℎ𝑜𝑡 − 𝑇𝑐𝑜𝑙𝑑

Where;

Qcold = heat removed from cold reservoir

W= work done to remove the heat

COP should be higher than 100%. We can increase the COP of the system when evaporator absorbs
more temperature and convert it into the saturated vapors. If the working of throttle valve is
efficient we can also increase the COP value.

If we want to increase the efficiencies of our air conditioning system following factor should be
considered.

• Minimize the cooling load

• Minimize the temperature lift
• Use of effective control system
• Refrigeration selection
• Preventive maintenance
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1.4.1 Minimize the cooling load:

Do not waste the energy to cool something that does not cool. Room should be the completely
insulated so that heat transfer does not takes place. A tight, well insulated reduce the cooling duty
of system the keeping the warm humid air outside the room.

1.4.2 Minimize the temperature lift:

A air conditioning system absorbs heat at low temperature and rejects heats at high temperature.
If the temperature lift is increased, energy consumption is high. We can minimize the temperature
lift by keeping the evaporator at maximum possible temperature and condenser at lowest possible
temperature.

1.4.3 Use of effective control system

Modern control system and sensors creates many possibilities to improve the efficiency of air
conditioner. Use of a variable speed compressor improves the accuracy of temperature control and
makes a significant efficiency improvement. Install smart scale thermostat that turns off air
conditioning system when desired temperature is achieved.

1.4.4 Refrigeration selection

The refrigerant that should be considered have important effect on the energy efficiency. GWP,
commercial availability, safety and cost are some characteristics that influence the refrigeration
selection. Air conditioning systems operate at many different conditions. The choice of refrigerant
is also affected on system size and ambient temperature.

1.4.5 Preventive maintenance

Regular preventive maintenance is also important to keep the system at optimum working
condition. It will also increase the life time and efficiency of system. By regular cleaning of
condenser, checking the refrigerant level and compressor parts makes the system more perfect.
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References

1. Stoecker, W. F., & Jones, J. W. (1982). Refrigeration and air conditioning. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
2. Air conditioning and refrigeration: Vapor compression cycle designs. (1999). Falls Church,
VA: ITC Learning.
3. Wang, S. K., Lavan, Z., & Norton, P. (2000). Air conditioning and refrigeration
engineering. Boca Raton: CRC Press.
4. Meyer, L. A., & Wray, H. L. (2004). Refrigeration for HVAC technicians. Hayward, CA:
LAMA Books.
5. Basharie, S. M. (2005). Performance modelling of refrigerants in a vapor compression
refrigeration cycle. Skudai: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.
6. Domanski, P. A. (1995). Theoretical evaluation of the vapor compression cycle with a
liquid-line/suction-line heat exchanger, economizer, and ejector. Gaithersburg, MD:
National Institute of Standards and Technology.
7. Harbach, J. A. (2005). Marine refrigeration and air-conditioning. Centreville, MD: Cornell
Maritime Press.
8. Peterson, R. A. (1978). Air conditioner efficiency. St. Paul: Agricultural Extension Service,
University of Minnesota.
9. Syrovatko, P. I., Zlotnikov, A. B., & Migdal, I. D. (1973). Air Conditioner. Ft. Belvoir:
Defense Technical Information Center.
10. Air conditioner. (n.d.). Tokyo: Toyota Motor Sales.
11. Dossat, R. J., & Horan, T. J. (2002). Principles of refrigeration. Upper Saddle River, NJ:
Prentice Hall.
12. Tosun, I. (2015). Thermodynamics: Principles and applications. New Jersey: World
Scientific.
13. Gunter, G. (2006). Fundamental refrigeration: A low-tech, low-stress introduction to the
mechanical refrigeration vapor compression cycle. Mount Prospect, IL: ESCO Press.
14. Pita, E. G. (1984). Refrigeration principles and systems an energy approach. New York: J.
Wiley & Sons.
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15. Borgnakke, C., Sonntag, R. E., J., V. W., & Sonntag, R. E. (2009). Fundamentals of
thermodynamics. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley.
16. Radermacher, R., & Hwang, Y. (2005). Vapor compression heat pumps with refrigerant
mixtures. Boca Raton, FL: Taylor & Francis.
17. Smith, J. M., C., V. N., Abbott, M. M., & Swihart, M. T. (2018). Introduction to chemical
engineering thermodynamics. New York: McGraw-Hill Education.
18. Dahm, K. D., Visco, D. P., & Singh, J. (2015). Fundamentals of chemical engineering
thermodynamics. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
19. Elliott, J. R., & Lira, C. T. (2012). Introductory chemical engineering thermodynamics.
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
20. NEWMAN, S. E. (1983). Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics. Ann Arbor, MI, Ann
Arbor Science