The principal operation of air conditioning is exactly the same as your fridge at home, just on a bigger scale………they can move temperature from one location to another using a transfer medium, in both cases, a refrigerant. An overview of the vapor compression cycle:

1. Compressor – Refrigerant leaves compressor as a high pressure, high temperature vapor.
2. Condenser – Refrigerant travels through the condenser coil where the heat is rejected and it changes state. The refrigerant leaves the condenser coil as a high pressure liquid.
3. Expansion valve – The refrigerant passes through an expansion valve which causes a drop pressure, which in turn causes a sudden drop in temperature.
4. Evaporator – the sub-cooled vapour travels through the evaporator coil, whereby the warm air from the room is passed over the coil to absorb the heat.
5. The refrigerant leaves the evaporator as a low pressure liquid and the cycle starts again.

In heat pump systems, this cycle can be reversed to provide heating to the indoor space (evaporator coil). As such, these systems can be used all year round for both heating and cooling.

• Comfort cooling
  • When the warmer weather sets in, your room temperature can be maintained to a more comfortable level.
• Heating
  • Many systems are able to operate both heating and cooling modes
• Reduce running costs
  • With modern inverter technology, the systems gradually increase or decrease the output to match the load, rather than the old days when the system was on or off, at maximum output.
• Design consideration
  • There are various unit types on the market today, provding more options to the consumers design needs. From sleek wall mount units, to fully concealed ducted units, there is generally a unit for every project.

Although air conditioning has mainly been used in commerical and high-end residential applications for many years, we are now seeing a rise in consumers having it installed in their homes. There are a few reasons for this, but the main two are down to equipment pricing now being more affordable and the desire for cooling in the home.

With the ever changing climate we live in, we have all seen (and felt) how the weather is changing year on year from the ‘norm’, it seems like every year of late, there is a new record being broken for hotest day on record. This all contributes as to why more and more consumers are looking to add cooling to their properties.