General Description:
An air conditioner is essentially a reverse Carnot cycle. Refrigerant, such as freons, flow inside the air conditioner. In the compressor, the refrigerant is a gas and becomes a hot and high-pressured one upon exiting the compressor. This gas then runs through a heat exchanger - condenser - where it dissipates its heat to the outside air and condenses into a liquid (hence the name condenser). The now liquid refrigerant then goes through an expansion valve that "decompresses" the liquid back into a cool, low-pressure gas, which then runs through another heat exchanger - evaporator - where it absorbs heat from the surrounding environment (usually the inside of the room that needs to be cooled). The efficiency of air conditioners is typically presented as an EER (energy efficiency rating), with a typical value of 8.5.Typical P-V Diagram:
P-H Diagram for Air Conditioner Process:
| where: | 1 - 2 : Across Compressor 3 - 4 : Across Condenser 5 - 6 : Across Expansion Valve 6 - 7 : Through Evaporator |
T-S Diagram for Air Conditioner Process:
| where: | 1 - 2 : Across Compressor 3 - 4 : Across Condenser 5 - 6 : Across Expansion Valve 6 - 7 : Through Evaporator |
