Index Technical Description: Air ConditionerCooling TowerCooling towers come in all shapes and sizes:CompressorSource YorkChilled Water SystemPerformance SpecificationsTechnical Description: Air ConditionerAir conditioning is the air conditioning of all the interior of a defined space, usually a home or a workplace. Air conditioning usually involves heating or cooling, humidifying or dehumidifying, and filtering or cleaning the air. If you have a central air conditioner, your system cools and dehumidifies the defined space. After some general information, this technical description provides details on three main parts of the air conditioning unit: Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original EssayCooling TowerCompressorChilled Water SystemContextAn air conditioner is basically a refrigerator without an insulating box. A typical air conditioner does exactly the same thing in exactly the same way. You can see a typical air conditioner with this diagram: Cooling Tower In air conditioning systems, air is used to dissipate heat from the external coil. In some systems, efficiency can be significantly improved by using a cooling tower. The cooling tower creates a flow of lower temperature water. This water flows through a heat exchanger and cools the hot coils of the air conditioner. It costs more to purchase the system initially, but the energy savings can be significant (especially in areas with low humidity) over time and the system pays for itself quite quickly. Cooling towers come in all shapes and sizes: Source Author Source How it works However, they all work on the same principle. A cooling tower blows air through a stream of water so that some of the water evaporates. Water typically flows through a thick layer of open plastic mesh and air blows through the mesh at right angles to the water flow. Evaporation cools the water flow. Since some water is lost to evaporation, the cooling tower constantly adds water to the system to make up the difference. Compressor The compressor compresses cold Freon gas, causing it to become hot, high-pressure Freon gas (red in the diagram). This hot gas passes through a series of coils so it can dissipate its heat, and in the process it condenses into a liquid. The liquid Freon goes through an expansion rate and in the process evaporates to become cold, low-pressure Freon gas (light blue in the diagram). This cold gas flows through a series of coils that allow the gas to absorb heat and cool the air inside the building. The compressor is the main engine of the air conditioner. It is the part that manages the entire system. The compressor is rated in BTU. One BTU is, generally, the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of one pound of water one degree F. Specifically, one BTU is 1,055 joules, but the first definition is easier to understand. One “ton,” in heating and cooling terms, equals 12,000 BTUs. A typical air conditioner might be rated at 10,000 BTU. This means that the air conditioner has the capacity to cool 10,000 pounds of water (about 1,200 gallons) one degree in one hour. Or it could cool 5,000 pounds by 2 degrees in an hour. Or 2,500 pounds and 4 degrees in an hour, and so on. Source York Chilled Water System In a chilled water system, the entire air conditioner.