Air Conditioning Services
Air Conditioning Services by J G Mechanical Inc.
A stand alone air conditioner or an air conditioning system, typically provides cooling and humidity control for all or part of a space inside of a building. Buildings with Air conditioning units often have sealed windows, because open windows would typically work against the system intended to maintain constant indoor air temperatures and conditions.
With most AC units, fresh air is generally drawn into the system from the outside by a vent into the indoor heat exchanger section, creating positive air pressure. The percentage of return air made up of fresh air can usually be manipulated by adjusting the opening of this vent. In most cases fresh air intake is somewhere around 10%.
Most refrigeration as well as Air conditioning are provided through the removal of heat. Heat can be removed several ways through conduction, convection, or radiation. Refrigeration conduction media such as chemicals, air, ice, and water are often referred to as refrigerants.
A refrigerant is used either in a a free cooling system which uses pumps to circulate a cool refrigerant (typically water or a glycol mix) or in a heat pump system in which a compressor is used to drive thermodynamic refrigeration cycle.
Air Conditioner Maintenance
Most modern air conditioner systems, even smaller window type units, utilize an internal air filter. They are often made up of a lightweight gauzy material, and must be cleaned or replaced as conditions require. For example, a home with furry pets, or a building in a high dust environment, will need to have the air filters changed more often than buildings without these type of dirty environments.
In most cases the failure of replacing these filters as needed will often contribute to lowered heat exchange rates, thus resulting in shortened equipment life, higher energy bills and wasted energy. In addition, low air flow can result in “iced-over” or “iced-up” evaporator coils, which can completely stop correct air flow.
On top of all that, dirty or blocked or clogged filters can cause overheating during a heating cycle, and can result in damage to the system or even cause a fire if allowed to run without proper maintenance.
Because an air conditioner unit moves heat between the indoor coil and the outdoor coil, both should always be kept clean. So, in addition to replacing the air filter regularly at the evaporator coil, it is also necessary to clean and maintain the condenser coil as well.
Failure to keep the condenser clean could eventually result in harm or damage to the compressor, because the condenser coil is responsible for discharging both the indoor heat picked up by the evaporator and the heat generated by the electric motor which drives the air conditioning compressor.
Air Conditioning energy efficiency
Since around the 1980s, most manufacturers of HVAC equipment have been making concerted efforts to make the Air Conditioning systems they manufacture a lot more efficient. It was mainly due to the ever rising energy costs of that time, and has more recently been driven by more awareness of environmental impact issues.
In addition to that, improvements to the HVAC system efficiency can also also help to improve human health as well as productivity. In the USA, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has imposed even more restrictions since then. Along with improvements in science and technology our conditioned air units continue to improve in the previously mentioned areas to keep us all more comfotable