Air Conditioners Move Heat
All scenes › Chapter 3 Compressor: squeeze it hot
What the electricity does
Electricity doesn’t make cold; it squeezes the refrigerant hot
View in 3DElectricity squeezes the refrigerant
Electricity runs the compressor. The electricity an air conditioner uses does not go into making cold air; it goes into squeezing the refrigerant to make it hot. In this example, the compressor uses about 0.6 kW of electricity. That is far less than the 2.5 kW of heat it takes out of the room.
Why?The refrigerant is what carries the heat. The electricity raises the refrigerant’s temperature so it can drop that heat off in the hot outdoors. It is like the effort a pump needs to push water uphill.
Learn moreThe electricity fed to the compressor also ends up as heat in the refrigerant. That is why the outdoor unit dumps more heat than it took from the room (scene 12). The indoor and outdoor fans use a little electricity too, but this calculation counts only the compressor.
- Electricity into the compressor (example)
- 0.6 kW
calculated from R-32 property tables (CoolProp) · example: room 27 °C, outdoors 35 °C
View this scene in 3D →More in the series
Temperatures, pressures and amounts of heat are calculated from property tables for the refrigerant R-32 (CoolProp). The example is a home air conditioner removing 2.5 kW of heat, with the room at 27 °C and the outdoors at 35 °C. In the 3D view, the refrigerant moves far slower than in real life, and the inside of the compressor and the expansion valve are shown as enlarged, simplified models.