The importance of air conditioners is perhaps best known to those residing in the tropical areas of the world. In these parts, air conditioners are almost indispensable parts of home appliances, assisting in keeping the interiors of homes, cars and offices as well as hospitals comfortable was the temperatures without soars high on the thermometer. Therefore, it can be said that air conditioners are a kind of appliance or system that makes use of electric and electronic as well as refrigeration cycle method to take away the heat from the given area in order to render a temperature and environment that is cool and comfortable and usually dirt free. In most cases air conditioners are devices that help in the achievement of three distinct processes, i.e. heating, ventilating and air conditioning.
Air conditioners have long history behind its invention and existence, however, the first commercial air conditioner run on electricity was manufactured back in the year 1902 by Willis Haviland Carrier. Soon they began to gain prominence and today in almost all low rise residential buildings, high rise residential buildings, commercial buildings to the effect of central air conditioning, institutions as well as industrial areas. Hospitals, animal breeding laboratories, aircrafts, textile factories, nuclear plants, mines, chemical and biological laboratories, food processing units and other places make extensive use of air conditioners. The mechanism of the air conditioners is not known to all but it proves to be quite intriguing when studied closely. The heat from lower temperature is source is passed on with the help of a heat pump into a high temperature heat sink and the air starts circling in the opposite direction. In order to keep the cooling effect going refrigerants such as Freon, HCFC, HFC and others are used, which are pushed into the evaporator coil, which causes the refrigerant to convert into vapor form, which absorbs the heat. The types of air conditioners available are window units, evaporation coolers, absorptive chillers and regular ones used for central conditioning.
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