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Tuesday 28 June 2011

The difference between a fixed and a portable air conditioner

The process of refrigeration is very simple. A compressor sucks in refrigerant gas at low pressure, and then pumps it out into a section of pipe that ends in a restrictive nozzle, forcing it back into a liquid in the high pressure side, and forcing it back into a gas in the low pressure side. The properties of refrigerant are such that it absorbs heat while at low pressure and gives off heat at high pressure - effecively removing the heat energy from one point and depositing it in another.

This is simple to imagine in a fixed air conditioner, the compressor sits outside and the high pressure part runs throughout the outdoor unit, and the low pressure pipework connects the compressor to the indoor unit. If they are run in heat mode a reversing valve means the compressor runs in the same direction, but the refrigerant is pumped the opposite way around the circuit.

In a monobloc portable air conditioner, it works essentially in the same way. Except the outdoor and indoor unit are contianed within one box. Half of the box is the indoor and half is the outdoor. The pipe circuit is more or less the same, except it is contained within a smaller area - each half has an air intake, so the unit has two grills which are sucking air in, and each half has an outlet - the indoor outlet which simply recirculates into the room, and the outdoor outlet which pushes air down a duct to the outdoors.
The downside of this is that it creates a slight negative pressure in the room where the machine is operating, therefore pulling warm air through doors, vent holes and any gaps which are not air tight.

A more efficient option is the water cooled split portable air conditioner which uses water transfer the heat much like a fixed installation. This therefore recirculates 100% of the air which passes through the indoor unit and does not create the negative pressure, giving more efficiency.

1 comment:

  1. Your blog is very informative and relevant to Air Conditioners .really i appreciate it.
    Thanks For Posting such Informative Blog !

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    ReplyDelete