Cincinnati Air Conditioning uses a refrigeration cycle to regulate the temperature of your home or workplace. It works by absorbing heat from the air inside your house, changing it to a gas via refrigerant & pumping it outside.
Choose a brand that offers an internet-accessed monitoring system, smart thermostat compatibility, and a 10-year limited warranty for parts & replacement. An ENERGY STAR rating is also a good indicator of quality.
Whether for personal comfort or industrial applications, air conditioning relies on precise control over four fundamental factors: air temperature, humidity, movement and quality. It involves a complex interplay of electrical energy, mechanical engineering and scientific understanding of human psychophysiology to create the conditions for optimal health, comfort and performance.
Air conditioners provide an essential service for humanity in a rapidly warming world, especially during heatwaves and other extreme heat events. Access to indoor cooling helps people work and learn effectively, keeps food and medical supplies safe from spoilage and mitigates the risks of heat-related illnesses. However, the power needed to run air conditioners and electric fans can strain electricity grids and contribute to climate change by releasing potent planet-warming gases such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs).
As the global climate warms, heatwaves are becoming more frequent and intense. As a result, more and more people are using air conditioning to stay safe and healthy, and this demand is driving significant increases in energy consumption and emissions. The energy used to cool buildings mainly comes from fossil fuels, which produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. As the climate crisis worsens, the demand for air conditioning is expected to keep rising.
The HFCs released by air conditioners can seep out of leaking piping and leak into the atmosphere, causing global warming. As a result, global agreements to phase down the use of these chemicals are urgently needed.
As a climate change mitigation strategy, building owners and operators should look for opportunities to improve their cooling efficiency by replacing inefficient equipment with newer models, increasing insulation levels, installing solar PV panels and switching to low-energy lighting and appliances. They should also consider implementing green roofs, which can significantly reduce the energy needed for heating and cooling. And they should encourage their customers to reduce indoor moisture-producing activities such as cooking, bathing and laundry by using exhaust fans that vent the air directly outdoors. Finally, they should help their customers make informed choices when it comes to purchasing and operating air conditioning systems. This will not only save money on utility bills, but it will also minimize the need for expensive maintenance and repairs.
Humidity Control
While it’s common to focus on temperature control when talking about HVAC systems, humidity is just as important from both a health and home quality standpoint. In addition to affecting the comfort of people and the integrity of building materials, high indoor moisture levels can cause a number of problems.
The ideal relative humidity level is 45% to 55%. This range allows for healthy dust mite levels, reduced mold growth and radon production. It also helps you feel warmer in the summer and cooler in the winter. When the relative humidity drops too low, it can lead to cold air drafts, irritated skin and throat, and a host of other issues.
Humid environments provide a breeding ground for bacteria, germs and other organisms that can spread from person to person, contributing to illness and worsening existing conditions. These extremes of humidity can also be detrimental to buildings, causing corrosion of metals and damaging flooring.
In order to minimize damage, it’s crucial to keep the humidity in your facility in line with ASHRAE standards. These standards recommend that the interior dew point be kept below 70% of the exterior dry bulb temperature, with an allowable range between 20-80%.
Maintaining a stable indoor environment is just as important for businesses as it is for homes. In addition to providing a comfortable work environment and improving employee productivity, good indoor environmental conditions protect products, equipment and inventory.
For example, high humidity can result in the growth of toxic molds that are hazardous to employees’ health and create slick surfaces that can pose slip-and-fall risks. Additionally, it can cause condensation that corrodes equipment and causes downtime and loss of productivity.
The best way to ensure that your building has the proper indoor moisture levels is to regularly monitor and measure humidity with a humidity meter. Once you have the data you need, it’s easy to implement a humidity control system that will ensure your building stays in the right range. This is one of the best investments you can make to improve your building’s energy efficiency, health and comfort.
Ventilation
Ventilation brings fresh air into a space and distributes it throughout the building or room. It helps remove harmful indoor air pollutants that have accumulated by dispersing them so they can be removed from the environment in an effective manner. Ventilation also prevents unhealthy depressurization that draws stale air into wall cavities and causes moisture damage. Modern ventilation systems are designed to recover energy from the exhaust air, heating it before bringing in new air and increasing efficiency.
In hospitals, ventilation is especially critical to prevent microbial transmission of infection between patients and staff. Microbial contamination of hospital ventilation systems has been implicated in the spread of infectious diseases such as aspergillosis and TB. The contaminating agents may be dust and moisture or biological contaminants such as SARS-CoV-2 that have been shown to accumulate on HEPA filters. The risk of microbial contamination in air conditioning systems is reduced by sanitization and regular maintenance and adherence to hospital infection control protocols.
The contaminating agents are removed from the air in a cooling process that uses refrigerant gas. This gas is heated by the compressor, raising its temperature and pressure and then sent to the condenser where it vaporizes and releases the heat into the air. The cooled air is then circulated back through the ducts and out into the room.
The best way to keep a cool, healthy home is through passive methods such as natural ventilation and using techniques that reduce heat buildup in a house such as attic fans and whole-house fans. However, many climates make the use of an air conditioner necessary. In these situations, a properly sized and installed system that is maintained and operated with a focus on energy-efficient operations and humidity control can help to keep cooling costs down while providing a comfortable environment for the occupants of the house.
Energy Efficiency
In a time when record-breaking heat has driven air conditioning demand globally, we need to make energy efficiency a priority. Energy efficient appliances use less energy to do the same job, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and our dependency on fossil fuels. As a result, they are a key tool for fighting climate change.
When it comes to air conditioners, the SEER rating is the best indicator of efficiency. The higher the SEER rating, the more efficient the unit. However, many homes still have older air conditioners with low SEER ratings. These units may run efficiently for a while, but after years of wear and tear they lose their energy efficiency. Choosing to replace them with newer units will have long term savings on electricity bills without sacrificing comfort.
The other important aspect of energy efficiency is that it is good for the environment. It reduces GHG emissions from the burning of fossil fuels and reduction of electricity consumption, which is essential to most of the pathways that limit global warming to 1.5C.
Energy efficiency measures can also have a number of other benefits. For example, by insulating a home, it is possible to cut heating and cooling energy use significantly. This can save money and reduce pollution, since it cuts the use of coal and other fossil fuels. It can even lower electricity prices, reducing the cost of products and services for consumers.
Finally, energy efficiency is good for people’s health. It reduces indoor air pollution, which in turn reduces the risk of respiratory problems such as asthma and heart disease. Moreover, it can increase the affordability of energy for those living in poverty, who need it most.
Overall, the most obvious benefit of energy efficiency is that it lowers electricity costs. This can mean more money available for other things, such as investing in greener technology or lowering household expenses. This can have a big impact, especially in developing countries where electricity prices are high and access to energy is a challenge. For example, research has shown that when households switch to energy-efficient appliances, their electric bill goes down by more than half.
