Air Conditioning-the removal of heat from indoor air for thermal comfort History The concept of air conditioning

was first applied in Rome, where water was circulated in houses to cool them down. In 1758 Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley conducted an experiment to explore the principle of evaporation as a means to rapidly cool an object. In 1820, Michael Faraday discovered that compressing and liquefying ammonia could chill air when the liquefied ammonia was allowed to evaporate. In 1902, the first modern electrical air conditioning unit was invented by Willis Haviland Carrier. In 1906 Stuart Cramer coined the term air conditioning. Thomas Midgley Jr. created the first chlorofluorocarbon in 1928. Applications Air conditioning engineers broadly divide air conditioning applications into what they call comfort and process. Humidity Control Refrigeration air conditioning equipment usually reduces the absolute humidity of the air processed by the system. A specific type of air conditioner that is used only for dehumidifying is called a dehumidifier. Unlike a regular air conditioner, a dehumidifier will actually heat a room just as an electric heater that draws the

same amount of power (watts) as the dehumidifier. Issues Energy Use Health Issues Refrigerant Environmental Issues

an appropriate atmosphere is critical to patient safety and well-being. Air conditioning can have a negative effect on skin, drying it out and a positive effect on sufferers of allergies and asthma. Air conditioning can also cause dehydration. Nash Healey-Nash was the first company to invent a portable and affordable air conditioning system for automobiles Environmental Issues Prior to 1994 most air conditioning systems utilized Dichlorodifluoromethane (R-12) as a refrigerant. It was usually sold under the brand name Freon-12 and is a chlorofluorocarbon halomethane (CFC). The manufacture of R-12 was banned in the United States and many other countries in 1994 due to environmental concerns in compliance with the Montreal Protocol. The R-12 was replaced with R-134a refrigerant, which has a lower ozone depletion potential. Old R-12 systems can be retrofitted to R-134a by a complete flush and filter/dryer replacement to remove the mineral oil, which is not compatible with R-134a. Portable air conditioners A portable air conditioner is one on wheels that can be easily transported inside a home or office. Portable refrigerative air conditioners come in two forms, split and hose. A portable split system has an indoor unit on wheels connected to an outdoor unit via flexible pipes, similar to a permanently fixed installed unit.

Hose systems, which can be monoblock or airto-air, are vented to the outside via air ducts. The monoblock type collects the water in a bucket or tray and stops when full. The air-toair type re-evaporates the water and discharges it through the ducted hose, and can run continuously. Portable air conditioner Portable air conditioners are great for use in smaller area or enclosed like office or bedroom where local cooling is required. Heat Pump Heat pump is a term for a type of air conditioner in which the refrigeration cycle is able to be reversed, producing heat instead of cold in the indoor environment. When the heat pump is enabled, the indoor evaporator coil switches roles and becomes the condenser coil, producing heat. The outdoor condensor unit also switches roles to serve as the evaporator, and produces cold air (colder than the ambient outdoor air). Some more expensive window air conditioning units have the heat pump function. However, a window unit that has a "heat" selection is not necessarily a heat pump because some units use electric resistance heat when heating is desired. A unit that has true heat pump functionality will be indicated in its literature by the term "heat pump".

Energy Use In a thermodynamically closed system, any energy input into the system that is being maintained at a set temperature (which is a standard mode of operation for modern air conditioners) requires that the energy removal rate from the air conditioner increase. This increase has the effect that for each unit of energy input into the system (say to power a light bulb in the closed system) this requires the air conditioner to remove that energy. In order to do that the air conditioner must increase its consumption by the inverse of its efficiency times the input of energy. Health issues Air-conditioning system can promote the growth and spread of microorganisms, such as Legionella pneumophila, the infectious agent responsible for Legionnaires' disease, or thermophilic actinomycetes, however this is only prevalent in water cooling towers. As long as the cooling tower is kept clean (usually by means of a chlorine treatment) these health hazards can be avoided. Conversely, air conditioning, including filtration, humidification, cooling, disinfection, etc., can be used to provide a clean, safe, hypoallergenic atmosphere in hospital operating rooms and other environments where