Room air conditioners are appliances that cool, dehumidify, filter, and circulate air. See Fig. 15-1. There are several manufacturers of window-mounted air-conditioning units. No attempt is being made here to represent all of them. Some general information is needed to help the repair person make recommendations to those who request information on various units.
Today, energy conservation is important. Thus, most manufacturers specify the energy savings their unit will produce. The best way to determine the amount of energy consumed is to check the electrical requirements of the unit. Check this figure with the Btu generated by that power. Room air conditioners are usually rated according to the number of Btu they will produce in cooling. The smallest unit is about 5000 Btu. Thus, it is possible to determine which unit can produce a greater amount of cooling in terms of Btu per kilowatt hour.
Figure 15-2 shows a room air conditioner with the cover removed. The compressor, fan, evaporator, and condenser are visible. The three main parts of an air conditioner are the fan, filter, and cooling element. The fan pulls warm moist air into the unit. The air is moved through the filter, where dust particles are removed. Next, the air is passed over the cooling element, where it is cooled and dehumidified. The fan then returns the conditioned air to the room. This conditioned air has been cooled, dehumidified, and filtered.
