Air conditioning sizing and maintenance

TIMES INT'L

Well I’m not that old…honest…but it seems that every year that passes by, the place gets hotter compared to say when I was in school. Anyway, I want to engage readers on air conditioning this time around.
The most popular type of air conditioning system for domestic use is the split or window type, [central air conditioning is more for commercial applications]. Now you may not care how air conditioning works; only that it does. I don’t blame you, but you need at least to know how to take care of it, and I want you to get an idea how to size it as well, so that the AC unit is correctly selected for its heat load.
So first the sizing. This is quite a complex matter, factors such as environmental temperatures, building orientation, lighting and heat generating appliances, ceiling height and the material the building is made of all have to be considered when sizing AC equipment. This is where rules of thumb come to the rescue. The following table, courtesy of Carrier:
So to use the table, just multiply the length by the width in feet to get the square footage of the room and check-up the corresponding AC size in the neighbouring column.
Remember that the table is only to be used as a guide, nevertheless these figures will give you a decent idea about what size AC you need for your room.
As far as maintenance goes, you only need to do some periodic cleaning. Just like your fridge, you will have to call in the professionals for the heavy work. So there is this filter just behind the front grille that needs to be taken out and cleaned just about every month or whenever you see it’s dirty. Just snap out the front cover and take out the filter. You can wash it with soapy water, rinse and dry it out and pop it back in. Also there is the condenser unit coils [the square radiator looking thing], make sure the coils are cleaned and the little fins on the grille are straight and clean too. You can use a comb to straighten out the fins if they get bent. Don’t forget, take off and plug out the unit before doing this.
So that’s basically it, easy fast little things you can do to make sure you don’t have to sweat out on those hot days, that seem to be getting more and more…hotter.

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