32. AIR CONDITIONER BUSINESS

When the temperature outside begins to climb, many people seek the cool comfort of indoor air conditioning. Like water towers and power lines, air conditioners are one of those things that we see every day but seldom pay much attention to.
Wouldn't it be nice to know how these indispensable machines work their magic.Air conditioners come in various sizes, cooling capacities and prices. One type that we see all the time is the window air conditioner, an easy and economical way to cool a small area.People who live in suburban areas usually have a condenser unit in the backyard.Most businesses and office buildings have condensing units on their roofs, and as you fly into any airport you notice that warehouses and malls may have 10 or 20 condensing units hidden on their roofs:

A window air conditioner unit implements a complete air conditioner in a small space. The units are made small enough to fit into a standard window frame. You close the window down on the unit, plug it in and turn it on to get cool air. If you take the cover off of an unplugged window unit, you'll find that it contains.The cold side, consisting of the expansion valve and the cold coil, is generally placed into a furnace or some other air handler. The air handler blows air through the coil and routes the air throughout the building using a series of ducts. The hot side, known as the condensing unit, lives outside the building.

In a chilled-water system, the entire air conditioner lives on the roof or behind the building. It cools water to between 40 and 45 degrees Fahrenheit (4.4 and 7.2 degrees Celsius). This chilled water is then piped throughout the building and connected to air handlers as needed. There's no practical limit to the length of a chilled-water pipe if it's well-insulated.You can see in this diagram that the air conditioner (on the left) is completely standard. The heat exchanger lets the cold Freon chill the water that runs throughout the building.

Because of the rising costs of electricity and a growing trend to "go green," more people are turning to alternative cooling methods to spare their pocketbooks and the environment. Big businesses are even jumping on board in an effort to improve their public image and lower their overhead.Ice cooling systems are one way that businesses are combating high electricity costs during the summer. Ice cooling is as simple as it sounds. Large tanks of water freeze into ice at night, when energy demands are lower. The next day, a system much like a conventional air conditioner pumps the cool air from the ice into the building. Ice cooling saves money, cuts pollution, eases the strain on the power grid and can be used alongside traditional systems.