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TYPES OF AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEMS

Following types of air conditioning systems are available in market;

 Unitary air conditioning systems

 Split air conditioning system
 Packaged air conditioning system
 Central air conditioning systems

1.1 Unitary AC Systems / Window Air Conditioner:

This type of unit is designed to cool a single room. In this air conditioner all the components,
namely the compressor, condenser, expansion valve or coil, evaporator and cooling coil are
enclosed in a single box.

And generally installed in windows therefore, they are also known as window air
conditioners. It is designed to provide free delivery of conditioned air to an enclosed space,
room or zone.

Suitability:

Unitary air conditioners are suitable for bedrooms, office cabins, general office area, hotel
rooms and similar applications where normal comfort conditions are required up to a distance
of 6 m from unitary air conditioner.

Unitary Air conditioners are available with following cooling capacities;

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ITEM NAME TONNAGE (TR) WATTS (W)

.5 1750
1 3500
WINDOW AIR CONDITIONER 1.5 5250
2 7000

3 10500

1.2 Split Air Conditioner:

Split air conditioner has an indoor unit and an outdoor unit interconnected with refrigerant
piping and power and control wiring & Indoor unit comprises of a filter, evaporator and
evaporator fan for circulation of air in the conditioned space. Outdoor unit has a compressor,
air-cooled condenser with condenser fan housed in a suitable cabinet for outdoor installation.
Split air conditioner includes primary source of refrigeration for cooling and
dehumidification and means for circulation and cleaning of air, with or without external air
distribution ducting.

Split air conditioners may be provided with either reciprocating compressor or scroll
compressor. Scroll compressor generally consumes about 10 to 12 percent less power
compared to reciprocating compressor.

Suitability;
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Split air conditioners are suitable for wide range of applications including residences, small
offices, clubs, restaurants, showrooms, departmental stores, etc.

Types of split air conditioners available may be categorized as under;

1. Exposed indoor unit, which is either a high wall unit or a floor-mounted unit.

2. Furred-in units (ceiling suspended unit), which is mounted in the ceiling and provided
with a duct collar and grille.

3. Ducted indoor unit, which requires ducting for air distribution.

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S. No. ITEM NAME TONNAGE (TR) WATTS (W)

1 TR 3500 W
1 Indoor Exposed Unit
1.5 TR 5250 W

2 TR 7000 W
3 TR 10500 W
2 Furred Unit 1 TR 3500 W
1.5 TR 5250 W
3 TR 10500 W
5 TR 17500 W
3 Ducted split AC units 5.5 TR 19250 W
7.5 TR 26250 W
8.5 TR 29750 W
15 TR 52500 W

1.3 Packaged Air Conditioner:

This type of unit is perfect for cooling multiple rooms or a large space in your home or office.
There are two possible arrangements with the package unit. In the first one, all the
components, namely the compressor, condenser (which can be air cooled or water cooled),
expansion valve and evaporator are housed in a single box. The cooled air is thrown by the
high capacity blower, and it flows through the ducts laid through various rooms. In the
second arrangement, the compressor and condenser are housed in one casing. The
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compressed gas passes through individual units, comprised of the expansion valve and
cooling coil, located in various rooms.

Packaged air conditioner is a

self-contained unit primarily for
floor mounting, designed to
provide conditioned air to the
space to be conditioned. It
includes prime Source of
refrigeration for cooling fid
dehumidification and means for
circulation and cleaning of air,
with or without external air
distribution ducting. It may also include means for heating, humidifying and ventilating air.
The unit comprises a compressor, condenser and evaporator, which are interconnected with
copper refrigerant piping and refrigerant controls. It also includes fan for circulation of air
and falter. The unit is provided with compressor and fan motor starter and factory-wired
safety controls. Compressor is a device, which compresses low-pressure low temperature
refrigerant gas to high- -pressure high temperature super-heated refrigerant gas.
Compressors may be reciprocating type or
scroll type for packaging unit applications.

Condenser condenses high pressure high

temperature refrigerant gas to liquid
refrigerant at approximate y the same temperature and pressure by removal of sensible heat of
refrigerant by external means of water cooling or air cooling. The packaged units are also
available with microprocessor-based controller installed in the unit for digital display of
faults as also several other functions. The packaged unit can also be provided with winter
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heating package or humidification package. The packaged unit may be provided with either
water-cooled condenser or a remote air cooled condenser with interconnected copper
refrigerant piping. The units are available with reciprocating compressor as also scroll
compressor, which consume about 10 to 12 percent lesser power. In a water-cooled
condenser unit, condenser-cooling water is circulated through the cooling tower with
necessary piping and pump sets. The water cooled condenser packaged unit gives higher
capacity at lower power consumption as compared to an air cooled condenser packaged unit
which gets considerably de-rated in capacity and also consumes more power in peak summer
months in most of the cities of our country due to high ambient temperature. Packaged units
are generally available with vertical air discharge or horizontal air discharge.

1.4 Central Air Conditioning System:

This unit is used primarily to cool big buildings, houses, offices, entire hotels, factories, etc.
The central air conditioning system is comprised of a huge compressor that has the capacity
to produce hundreds of tons of air conditioning. If you have a big area to cool, central air
conditioning may be the only way to go.
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AHU: An air handler, or air handling unit (often abbreviated to AHU), is a device used to
regulate and circulate air as part of a heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning (HVAC)
system. An air handler is usually a large metal box containing a blower, heating or cooling
elements, filter racks or chambers, sound attenuators, and dampers. Air handlers usually
connect to a ductwork ventilation system that distributes the conditioned air through the building
and returns it to the AHU. Sometimes AHUs discharge (supply) and admit (return) air directly to
and from the space served without ductwork.
Small air handlers, for local use, are called terminal units, and may only include an air filter, coil,
and blower; these simple terminal units are called blower coils or fan coil units. A larger air
handler that conditions 100% outside air, and no recirculated air, is known as a makeup air
unit (MAU). An air handler designed for outdoor use, typically on roofs, is known as a packaged
unit (PU) or rooftop unit (RTU).

Chiller plant:
A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid via a vapor-compression or absorption
refrigeration cycle. This liquid can then be circulated through a heat exchanger to cool
equipment, or another process stream (such as air or process water). As a necessary by
product, refrigeration creates waste heat that must be exhausted to ambience, or for greater
efficiency, recovered for heating purposes.
Chilled water is used to cool and dehumidify air in mid- to large-size commercial, industrial,
and institutional facilities. Water chillers can be water-cooled, air-cooled, or evaporativly
cooled. Water-cooled systems can provide efficiency and environmental impact advantages
over air-cooled systems.
In air conditioning systems, chilled water is typically distributed to heat exchangers, or coils,
in air handlers or other types of terminal devices which cool the air in their respective
space(s). The water is then recirculated to the chiller to be recooled. These cooling coils
transfer sensible heat and latent heat from the air to the chilled water, thus cooling and
usually dehumidifying the air stream. A typical chiller for air conditioning applications is
rated between 15 and 2000 tons, and at least one manufacturer can produce chillers capable
of up to 5,200 tons of cooling. Chilled water temperatures can range from 35 to 45 °F (2 to
7 °C), depending upon application requirements.
When the chillers for air conditioning systems are not operable or they are in need of repair
or replacement, emergency chillers may be used to supply chilled water. Rental chillers are
mounted on a trailer so that they can be quickly deployed to the site. Large chilled
water hoses are used to connect between rental chillers and air conditioning systems.
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York International water-cooled chiller air cooled condenser on the rooftop

Cooling tower:

Cooling towers are evaporative coolers used for cooling water or other working medium to
near-ambient temperature. Cooling towers use evaporation of water to reject heat from the
system. They vary in size from small roof-top units to very large hyperbolic structures (as in
Image 1) that can be over 120 meters tall and 100 meters in length or rectangular structures
(as in Image 2) that can be over 40 meters tall and 80 meters long.Cooling towers can
generally be classifed by use into either industrial or HVAC (air-conditioning) duty.

Industrial cooling towers can by used to reject heat from various sources such as machinery
or heated process material.

An HVAC cooling tower is a subcategory rejecting heat generated by a chiller. As heat loads
increase, water-cooled chillers are more energy efficient than air-cooled chillers. Large office
buildings, hospitals, schools typically use a cooling tower as part of their air conditioning
systems.

Generally, industrial
cooling towers are
much larger than
HVAC towers and are
entirely erected on
site. HVAC cooling
towers can be
compact enough to
factory assemble and
ship nearly complete.

Cooling towers are

used in central air
conditioning systems.
The function of the
cooling tower is to
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cool the warm water from the chiller condenser. Following the central air conditioning
system cycle, the heat from the rooms in a building is transferred to chilled water, which is
then transferred into the refrigerant, and finally to the cooling water. The cooling tower is at
the final point of the heat transfer. The heat is transferred to the atmosphere.

The heat in the cooling water is removed by letting moving air come into contact with it.
Water is normally spread out and allowed to drop down by gravity from a height. Plastic
fillings are arranged so as to increase the wetted surface of the water while it is dropping,
while at the same time provide better contact between the air passages and the water.

There are basically 2 types of designs:

Cross Flow
Counter Flow

Cross flow: As the name suggests, the flow of water is at right angles to the flow of air. The
cooling tower for this type of design is usually shaped like a box. Warm water is pumped to
the top of the cooling tower where it is distributed to the sides and allowed to drop through
small holes. Plastic air intake louvers at the sides of the cooling tower allow the water to
spread out while dropping. Air from the outside is sucked into the cooling tower by several
fans located at the top. The incoming air comes into contact with the dropping water, and the
latter is cooled. The cooled water is collected at the bottom of cooling tower. This water is
then pumped out again and circulated through the chiller. The heat from the chiller is
transferred to it again. The warm water then returns back to the top of the cooling tower and
the cycle starts again.

Counter flow: Counter flow cooling towers have the air passage flowing directly
against the flow of the water. As with the cross flow design, water is allowed to
spread out with the help of air inlet louvers. Their bottle like shape characterizes
this type of cooling towers. There is only one single fan at the center. Fitted below
the fan is a rotating water pipe distributor. The pipes of the water distributor shoots
water only from one side. The action of the water pressure shooting from one side
rotates the distributor. The water is thus dropped evenly over the air inlet louvers.
The water dropping by gravity meets head on with the up moving air current
sucked in by the fan. The air cools the water. The water collected at the bottom of
the cooling tower is pumped to the chiller, becomes heated up again, and is then
returned back to the cooling tower for cooling.

Reference:

1) https://www.scienceabc.com/innovation/air-conditioner-ac-work.html
2) Book: Principles of Refrigeration by Roy J. Dossat, fourth edition, Prentice Hall
3) https://www.new-learn.info/packages/clear/index.html
4) https://www.refrigerationschool.com/blog/hvacr/four-types-refrigeration-systems-need-
know/