Monday, January 17, 2011

Air Conditioning and Conditioning Systems

By Paul Myers


Commercial air conditioning comes in both centrally driven systems and local systems. Traditionally offices tended to have a central cooling and heating fan unit whereby the temperature controlled air is distributed throughout the building by a system of ceiling or floor ducts.

A series of ventilation grills and baffles are balanced to ensue an even air distribution throughout the building.

However, modern technology allows many inverter units to be run off a single compressor and this is an alternative method of providing air conditioning to commercial premises. Technological advances allow long refrigerant pipe runs of up to 170m and the small diameter pipes which are now used result in less volume of refrigerant gas.

Similar techniques in medieval Persia involved the use of cisterns and wind towers to cool buildings during the summer season. The air conditioning we see today is based on these ancient principles, however advances in the use of chemistry during the 19th century led to the first large scale modern type of air conditioning unit being 'invented' and used in 1902.

If inverter units are used in commercial buildings, these are often ceiling cassettes which come in a variety of specifications (1, 2 and 4 way cassettes). Perimeter areas and corridor areas often use air conditioning console units.

As summer temperatures continue to increase during the next decade it seems likely that many households will seek to install some form of air conditioning. There is good logic in equipping perhaps a main living room or master bedroom in the first instance.

Along with the associated benefits of air conditioning, there are also several disadvantages; one disadvantage is the environmental cost. The costs to the environment is due to the amount of electricity required to run an air conditioning unit when some people argue that the same cooling effect can be seen by simply opening up a window.

However measures are in place to oversee the development of greener air conditioners, where a difference of up to 200% can be seen when compared to traditional units.




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