What Type of House Fans Designs Gives the Best Cooling
Air workout, or cooling, is more complicated than heating. Instead of using energy to create oestrus, air conditioners utilise energy to take heat abroad. The most mutual ac organisation uses a compressor cycle (similar to the i used by your refrigerator) to transfer oestrus from your business firm to the outdoors.
Movie your firm as a refrigerator. At that place is a compressor on the outside filled with a special fluid chosen a refrigerant. This fluid can change back and along between liquid and gas. As it changes, information technology absorbs or releases heat, so it is used to "carry" heat from one identify to another, such as from the inside of the refrigerator to the outside. Simple, right?
Well, no. And the procedure gets quite a fleck more than complicated with all the controls and valves involved. But its effect is remarkable. An air conditioner takes heat from a cooler place and dumps it in a warmer place, seemingly working against the laws of physics. What drives the process, of course, is electricity — quite a lot of information technology, in fact.
Types of Cooling Systems
Primal Air Conditioners and Heat Pumps
Central air conditioners and rut pumps are designed to cool the entire firm. In each system, a large compressor unit of measurement located outside drives the process; an indoor coil filled with refrigerant cools air that is then distributed throughout the house via ducts. Heat pumps are like central air conditioners, except that the bike can be reversed and used for heating during the winter months. (Heat pumps are described in more detail in the heating section.) With a cardinal air conditioner, the same duct system is used with a furnace for forced warm-air heating. In fact, the central air conditioner typically uses the furnace fan to distribute air to the ducts.
Key air conditioners and air-source heat pumps operating in the cooling mode accept been rated according to their seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) since 1992. SEER is the seasonal cooling output in Btu divided by the seasonal free energy input in watt-hours for an "average" U.S. climate. Before 1992, dissimilar metrics were used, but the operation of many older central air conditioners was equivalent to SEER ratings of just half dozen or 7. The boilerplate key air conditioner sold in 1988 had a SEER-equivalent of about 9; past 2002 it had risen to eleven.1.The national efficiency standard for central air conditioners and air source heat pumps at present requires a minimum SEER of 13 (since 2006), and to qualify for Free energy STAR requires a SEER of 14.v or higher. Fundamental air conditioners as well come with an energy efficiency ratio (EER) rating, which indicates performance at higher temperatures. Free energy STAR-qualified models must meet an EER requirement of 12.
Air conditioners and heat pumps use the refrigerant cycle to transfer rut between an inside unit and an outside uint. Estrus pumps differ from air conditioners only in the special valve that allows the bicycle to reverse, providing either warm or cool air to the within.
New efficiency standards for central air conditioners accept effect in 2015. Equally with furnaces, the new standards will differ past region, with greater stringency in the South and Southwest than in the North. New central air conditioners sold for installation in the South and Southwest must meet a minimum fourteen SEER; for units installed in the North, the xiii SEER minimum remains unchanged. Air-source heat pumps must run across the 14 SEER minimum regardless of where they are installed. In improver, central air conditioners installed in the hot, dry Southwest must come across a minimum 12.ii EER (or 11.7 EER for larger models).
In contrast, cooling performance of ground source heat pumps is measured by the steady state EER instead of a seasonal measure. The Energy STAR program's minimum requirements for ground-source rut pumps are 21.1 EER for open-loop systems, 17.1 EER for closed-loop systems, and xvi EER for direct expansion (DX) units.
Room Air Conditioners
Room air conditioners are available for mounting in windows or through walls, merely in each case they piece of work the same style, with the compressor located outside. Room air conditioners are sized to absurd just one room, so a number of them may exist required for a whole house. Individual units toll less to purchase than key systems.
Room air conditioners are rated only by the EER, which is cooling output divided by power consumption. The higher the EER, the more efficient the air conditioner. Revised federal minimum efficiency standards for room air conditioners adopted in 2011 will take effect in June 2014; revised Energy STAR requirements will take consequence in October 2013. Table five.ii lists requirements for units with louvered sides—the nearly common type.
Federal Standard min EER | Energy STAR min EER | ||
Chapters (Btu/60 minutes) | every bit of Oct. 2014 | as of Oct. 2014 | Every bit of July 2017 |
less than half-dozen,000 | 11.0 | xi.2 | 12.1 |
half-dozen,000 ro seven,999 | 11.0 | eleven.2 | 12.1 |
8,000 to thirteen,999 | 10.9 | 11.3 | 12.0 |
14,000 to 19,999 | 10.7 | 11.2 | 11.8 |
20,000 to 24,999 | 9.4 | 9.8 | x.three |
25,000 or college | ix.0 | 9.eight | 9.9 |
Evaporative Coolers
Evaporative coolers, sometimes called swamp coolers, are less common than vapor compression (refrigerant) air conditioners, simply they are a practical alternative in very dry areas, such as the Southwest. They piece of work past pulling fresh outside air through moist pads where the air is cooled past evaporation. The cooler air is then circulated through a house. This process is very similar to the experience of feeling cold when you become out of a swimming pool in the breeze. An evaporative libation can lower the temperature of outside air past as much equally 30 degrees.
They tin save as much every bit 75% on cooling costs during the summer considering the just mechanical component that uses electricity is the fan. Plus, because the applied science is simpler, it can also cost much less to purchase than a central air conditioner — frequently about half.
A direct evaporative libation adds moisture to a firm, which could exist considered a benefit in very dry climates. An indirect evaporative cooler is a fiddling different in that the evaporation of water takes place on one side of a heat exchanger. House air is forced across the other side of the heat exchanger where it cools off but does not selection up wet. Both types begin to lose their effectiveness with increasing humidity, because humid air is less able to deport additional moisture.
For evaporative coolers to practise their job, they must be the right size. The cooling capacity of an evaporative cooler is measured not in the amount of rut it can remove (Btu), but in the fan pressure required to circulate the cool air throughout the business firm, in cubic feet per minute (cfm). A good rule is to effigy the cubic square footage of your house and carve up by 2. For instance, a one,500-foursquare-foot business firm with 8-foot-high ceilings would require a 6,000 cfm cooler.
Ductless Mini-Split Air Conditioners
Mini-split systems, very pop in other countries, tin exist an attractive retrofit option for room additions and for houses without ductwork, such every bit those using hydronic heat (meet the heating section). Similar conventional fundamental air conditioners, mini-splits employ an outside compressor/condenser and indoor air treatment units. The difference is that each room or zone to be cooled has its own air handler. Each indoor unit is continued to the outdoor unit via a conduit carrying the power and refrigerant lines. Indoor units are typically mounted on the wall or ceiling.
The major advantage of a ductless mini-split is its flexibility in cooling private rooms or zones. Past providing dedicated units to each space, it is easier to run into the varying condolement needs of unlike rooms.
Past avoiding the use of ductwork, ductless mini-splits also avert free energy losses associated with fundamental forced-air systems.
The chief disadvantage of mini-splits is cost. They price much more than than a typical central air conditioner of the aforementioned size, where ductwork is already in place. But, when considering the toll and energy losses associated with installing new ductwork for a primal air conditioner, buying a ductless mini-divide may not be such a bad deal, peculiarly considering the long-term energy savings. Talk with your contractor virtually what selection would be most cost-effective for y'all.
State of the Art Cooling
Nighttime Breeze is a new abode climate command engineering designed to save energy in hot, dry climates. It is substantially a powered whole-house fan, air conditioner, and indirect h2o heater integrated nether one command organization. In the summer, the organisation draws in as much cool outdoor air as possible to meet cooling needs — the air conditioner only kicks on if admittedly necessary. In the wintertime, a h2o-to-air heat exchanger extending from the water heater supplies warm air to the arrangement.
Contact: Davis Energy Group
Likewise appropriate for dry out climates, the Coolerado Libation is an evaporative cooling technology that is 100% indirect. It tin can offer four to six tons of cooling with an free energy consumption of i,200 watts. Its energy efficiency ratio (EER) is forty or higher, making information technology 2 to three times as efficient as the all-time conventional air conditioners.
Contact: Coolerado, LLC
Thermal Energy Storage is a technology that is best for simply shifting energy utilize from peak to off-peak hours. It works past storing energy in ice — at night, electricity is used to freeze h2o, and during the mean solar day, the ice tin absurd air that is circulated throughout the house. Almost cost-constructive for people who live in climates that cool off at night and pay more for top electricity utilise (e.g., in California), this applied science is now available for residential use.
Contact: Ice Energy, LLC
Source: https://smarterhouse.org/cooling-systems/types-cooling-systems
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