Talk:Air conditioner

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What proportion of petrol consumption are car air conditioners responsible for? It is suggested that there is a loss of 3 miles per gallon of fuel efficiency for car air conditioners. However that likely assumes a large luxury car.

Believe it or not, at highway speed, driving with the windows open uses even MORE gasoline than driving with the AC on and the windows closed. How is that possible? Because on modern cars, opening the windows basically ruins the aerodynamics of the car. It makes it so much less "slippery," that none other than the Society of Automotive Engineers says you'd be better off with the air conditioner on and the windows closed. [1] --Quasipalm 03:32, 14 May 2005 (UTC)

Further, if you're already piloting a Rolls-Royce or Chevrolet Suburban, your mileage will not drop from 10 to 7 mpg. It is your Honda Civic or MINI which will take the hit, but what, from 30 to 27mpg? Better than soiling the seats!

Contents

[edit] Air conditioner and heat island effect

I believe, that besides all this information about the usefullness of air-conditioneers, there should be also (at least) some critical note, that by having nice fresh air inside, you heat the outside more with your system. This effect causes even more the urban heat island effect and should be included to an OBJECTIVE article about air conditioners. Thanks and sorry that I dont have enough time to include this section by myself... —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 133.78.120.149 (talk) 09:49, 1 May 2007 (UTC).

[edit] Image needed

A photo of a "classic" in-window air conditioner would be nice. More importantly, we need a diagram illustrating how the air is cooled and dehumidified (which is why I searched for this article in the first place). - dcljr (talk) 02:00, 21 July 2005 (UTC)

I've added photos of an in-window air conditioner that's been stuck through a wall. --Carnildo 07:40, 8 December 2005 (UTC)
The added photos are good, and there is a diagram illustrating the basic cycle. If no one objects we can remove the image request. -Dr Haggis - Talk 23:20, 16 January 2006 (UTC)
Removed image request. -Dr Haggis - Talk 20:59, 6 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Emerson quiet Kool

Image:68 12.jpg

[edit] Fedders Old Air Conditioners

fedders.jpg

[edit] Too many abbreviations unclarified

""Freon" is a trade name of Dupont for any CFC, HCFC, or HFC refrigerant, the name of each including a number indicating molecular composition (R-11, R-12, R-22, R-134)."

CFC, HCFC, and HFC should be stated as to what they stand for. CFC I assume stands for chlorofluorocarbon. Stating what the R in ,(R-11, R-12, R-22, R-134), should be stated as well.

"R" stands for refrigerant silly. And yes, CFC stands for chlorofluorocarbon. Mikiemike 18:08, 2 May 2006 (UTC)

Not everyone is as wise as you, Mikiemike.

[edit] Australia

I have deleted the un-referenced claim that "air con" is a common abbreviation in Australia. I have been designing air conditioning systems for over 30 years in Australia and in my experience this term is very rarely used. By far the most common abbreviation is "A/C" or "A.C." or "HVAC" in some situations. A/C is used in relation to commercial applications and is the abbreviation used on most car air conditioning controls. Further, the term "air con" is not mentioned in Australia's national dictionary, the Macquarie.

If there is evidence to support the original claim, the original author (213.206.140.66) should provide a suitable authoritative reference when reinstating the text. IanWills 23:50, 1 May 2006 (UTC)IanWills

[edit] Reverse Cycle

No mention of reverse cycle air conditioners.

[edit] Energy usage..

should be some mention of energy usage with re: to air conditioners. - Abscissa 23:12, 17 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] The aforementioned Persian cooling systems

"The aforementioned Persian cooling systems..." don't seem to be aforementioned

[edit] Who is Wolff?

Mentioned in the article but no idea what it's referring to

[edit] Hot

It's so hot in Québec, it's 32 degrees celcius in my room, I need air conditioning please.74.56.48.155

The link at the bottom of the page, entitled "design failings of monoblock portable AC" is inappropriate for wikipedia, as it is un-scientific and contains an absurd amount of profanity!!!

It was very informative though. And I know Wikipedia isn't supposed to contain "how-to" material, but in our recent heatwave I was very glad to find the advice (still in the article) about increasing the efficiency of single-duct monoblock units! (it made a difference of several degrees). Where can it go, if it doesn't belong on WP? Vilĉjo 10:09, 19 August 2006 (UTC)
The link is very informative, but the level of profanity is almost too much. If the author can't clean it up maybe it should be removedteddy 12:42, 19 June 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Second law of thermodynamics?

Excuse my ignorance, but how does air conditioning NOT violate the 2nd law? Isn't it taking heat from a warm enviroment (inside of a building), and transfering it to a hotter enviroment (outside the building)? Doesn't this process in effect reverse the effects of entropy? Inforazer 15:14, 12 September 2006 (UTC)

  • 2nd law only states that the aforementioned process cannot occur spontaneously, as it requires energy to do that. Air conditioners DO use energy to induce a flow of heat that would not occur naturally. Santtus 17:16, 30 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Pictures of the various units?

How about a picture (or drawings, just something to illustrate) the various types of air-conditioners units?

Window and through-wall units Evaporation coolers ... "Ductless", "duct-free", or "mini-split" air conditioners

Some of them are not very clear of how they are / looks like

[edit] Cleanup

Article clean-up underway, as requested. This is a large, competitive industry, but please try not to include commercialism. 129.237.114.171 20:55, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Big step of clean up done -- split 'air conditioning' (theory/history) and 'air conditioner' (equipment). Now there are two, shorter articles with better defined purposes. 129.237.114.171 18:55, 14 November 2006 (UTC)
Note: this needed split is similar to refrigeration vs. refrigerator. 129.237.114.171 19:24, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] who is the author?

i want to know who is the author of this page? thanks

There is no actual author for this article. Since the article is released under GFDL, just mentioning it came from WP's AC article would be fine if citing it. Lincher 17:59, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reverse cycle air conditioners

As mentioned above, there's nothing about reverse cycle air conditioners, neither here nor elsewhere in Wikipedia, that I can find. Do they have another name? --Chriswaterguy talk 14:05, 5 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Reverse Cycle, Power Factor and Load Factor, Inverter technology

I have tried to add some mention of reverse cycle air conditioning - sitting here in Adelaide on a 37C day in the comfort of mine. Also there are other issues missing - I have touched on the Power Factor issue in the electricity distribution network - a major issue in extreme weather conditions, as the out of phase currents stress the distribution transformers, and the effect on load factor (peak to average use) of power overall in hot weather. Australian experience so may be different elsewhere. JohnT 08:21, 10 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Evaporative and Thermostats

The section on evaporative units did not mention the critical issues of Relative Humidity and air flow - evaporative performs poorly in high RH or with a closed up house / office. I also note that the section on thermostats fails to note anything about the very normal use of thermostats on all refrigeration cycle air conditioning units - used to both control the on / of cycle of the compressor, and to check for coil icing. Anyone have any views as to why it should not be mentioned? JohnT 06:52, 11 March 2007 (UTC) and that is the air conditioner

[edit] This article has become useless

I looked at this article hoping for (a) history of air conditioning, and (b) diagrams of how air conditioners work. There's nothing like that here. I clicked a random archived copy (one from July 2006), and found both of those things. This article seems to have be edited and re-edited and edited some more, to the point that it is fairly bare-bones and lacks A LOT of useful, pertinent, and interesting information. People come to Wikipedia for accurate, clear, objective, COMPLETE information on different topics. This article, for reasons I don't understand, used to be great and is now bad. Why did this happen, and what can we do to fix it? Why were the diagrams removed? Why was the history removed? All that stuff is useful, educational, and interesting. Piercetheorganist 10:34, 18 May 2007 (UTC)

I Think the reason for this is that some of the stuff is covered by Air Conditioning. Personally i would merge the articles, though i doubt that has a lot of support. Alternatively create two article Air Conditioning Units and Air Conditioner Theory or similar.User A1 15:12, 18 May 2007 (UTC)
The topic of Air Conditioning is rather lengthy, particularly if you want to include History of air conditioning, a discussion of applications, central air conditioning, energy efficiencies, and a host of other miscellaneous oddball air conditioning topics. The theory of air conditioning, of course, must be discussed somewhere. All this information is too long for one article, particularly since someone decided to merge Central air conditioning into Air conditioner. Therefore, two articles on this topic came into existence: Air conditioning and Air conditioner. In theory, it would be nice to merge these two into a single article, but it would become much too long. Somewhere along the line, somebody did not realize the implication of this division and started duplicating information in both these articles. That, along with vandalism and incorrect reverts, have unfortunately made a mess out of the Air conditioning - Air conditioner article duo. It will take some effort and possibly time to sort this situation out. H Padleckas 03:12, 5 August 2007 (UTC)
I've made some progress fixing up this article, but it is still not perfect. More remains to be done. Mentioning the ideal gas law does little, if any, good to help a non-technical reader understand how an air conditioner works. I think I will take that out on the next edit. H Padleckas 22:35, 5 August 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Spam and Copyvios

Hello,

The level of copyvio on this page is becoming tragic. I keep finding chunks of air conditioning "information" being cut and pasted from various locations around the internet. This web page is becoming difficult to follow as an article, and i find myself taking chunks out of it. I would welcome any comments people have as to how to tackle this issue. Perhaps a listing of what this article should and should not contain is in order. Comments? User A1 15:41, 23 May 2007 (UTC)

Actually, some of it is hard to tell which is a copy of which. Either way, the spam rate comment still stands. User A1

[edit] Health implications

It's stupid to say it doesn't have health implications. When you come from the hot outside air into an cold air conditioned room you're likely to get a cold because of the sudden temperature change. Same applies to standing right in front of the AC so that the airflow blows directly on you. You'll get one hell of a headache. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 86.121.78.33 (talk) 15:43, August 22, 2007 (UTC)

Are you serious? Got some news for you, scientists have discovered that colds are caused by a virus, NOT from cold air! Therefore you won't get a cold from going into an air conditioned room, going outside without a jacket on, going out in the cold with wet hair, etc! For Christ's sake, stop spreading these ridiculous old wives tales.Bwd234 (talk) 09:04, 10 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] wall mounted units

When I vacationed in Australia in 2003, I found that many hotels had these wall mounted units, often on non-exterior wall. I've never seen them in use in the USA. The Sunday newspaper ads in Australia were filled with these units. I could never understand how the heat is removed. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Mre5765 (talk • contribs) 13:43, 9 September 2007 (UTC)

As a saleman specialised in air conditioning and heating systems, I really am surprised to find this page with no mention whatsoever of the wall mounted units. Wall mounted units are superior to what is refered in this article as "Window and through-wall units" in every possible way except for the total price and the fact that wall mounted units absolutly need experienced technicians to install them correctly.
It is an incredible omission, so much in fact that it give me a great doubt in the credibility of the article... —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.55.73.176 (talk) 18:16, 31 March 2008 (UTC)