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by: K.L. Miller
When you choose a room air conditioner make sure the cooling power of the air conditioner is appropriate for the room you want to put it in. Also make sure the electric
power requirements are the same as the electric system available for it.
The amount of cooling power of an air conditioner is resolved by the size of the room and the number of people using it. Also the number, size, and direction of the
window in the room, what the wattage of appliances and lights are, and how much wall insulation there is.
If an air conditioner has a lower cooling power than needed, it will not keep a room cool. An air conditioner that is too big will control the temperature, but on the
other hand, it may not lessen extreme humidity. This kind of air conditioner will run only for a short time before the temperature will start to drop. It is also possible that it might not even run long enough to get rid of moisture in the air.
There are four ways that manufacturers rate the cooling power of air conditioners. They are: British thermal units, watts and kilowatts, tons of refrigerations, and
horsepower.
The British thermal unit is the basic measurement used for air conditioning. It should always be used to define the cooling power of an air conditioner.
Watts and kilowatts are the units that are used to measure an air conditioner’s cooling power in the metric system. One watt equals 3.4 British thermal units per-hour.
One ton of refrigeration can get rid of the amount of heat that is needed to melt one short ton of ice in only 24 hours. A one ton air conditioner can get rid of 288,000
British thermal units of heat in only 24 hours. A two ton air conditioner can get rid of double this amount, and so on.
Horsepower is the measurement of power needed to run the refrigeration unit that cools the air. Air conditioners can be from 1/4 horsepower to as high as 3,000 horsepower for conditioners that condtion a whole building.
Different air conditioners use different amounts of electricity to get rid of the same amount of heat. Engineers will use what is known as the Energy Efficiency Ratio.
They use this ratio to measure just how economically an air conditioner uses electricity.
If you want to find an air conditioner’s Energy Efficiency Ratio take it’s British thermal unit per hour rate and divide it by the number of watts of electricity that is used by the unit.
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