Humming air conditioners are the soundtrack to summer season within the U.S., provided that almost 90% of households use them for cooling. Regardless that air conditioning is everywhere, nonetheless, many individuals nonetheless have questions on precisely the way it works, the way to use it greatest, and the way it impacts air high quality, human health, and the setting. TIME spoke to consultants to get solutions.
How does air con work?
In essentially the most fundamental phrases, “an air conditioner absorbs warmth from the constructing and dumps it to the surface,” explains Jeffrey Siegel, a professor of civil engineering on the College of Toronto who researches air flow and indoor air high quality. Extra particularly, a compressor strikes liquid refrigerant into an indoor coil, the place it evaporates and pulls warmth from the encircling air. The gaseous refrigerant then flows to the system’s out of doors coil, transferring warmth out of your own home. The gasoline condenses again right into a liquid within the system’s out of doors coil, and the method begins once more.
Central air-conditioning methods, window models, and mini-splits (which often sit excessive on the wall) work in conceptually the identical means, however there are variations in how they’re put in and precisely how they switch warmth. Functionally, the largest distinction for shoppers is that central methods cool a complete residence, whereas window models and mini-splits are designed to work in just one room.
How do air conditioners have an effect on air high quality?
It depends upon what sort of system you might have. Window models and mini-splits usually don’t have high-quality filters, so that they don’t do a lot for air high quality past temperature regulation, Siegel says. Central air-conditioning methods, nonetheless, can provide helpful filtration, catching particulate matter like mud, pet dander, mildew, and smog.
The upper a filter’s minimal effectivity reporting worth, or MERV, the extra it may possibly entice. Excessive-MERV filters may even assist take away viruses from indoor air, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, however not successfully sufficient to depend on your AC system alone for illness prevention. You probably have central AC, make sure that to run the fan for a minimum of 20 minutes an hour, as air solely passes by way of the filter when the fan is actively working, Siegel says.
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The tradeoff is that rooms which might be sealed for cooling don’t get a lot, if any, air flow from recent air. “Dilution with out of doors air helps do away with plenty of stuff,” Siegel says, so it’s a good suggestion to close off your AC and open the home windows for a minimum of a bit of daily, so long as out of doors situations permit. “Sick building syndrome,” which causes individuals to really feel unwell once they spend numerous time indoors, is considered linked to insufficient air flow.
Do you really want to alter your air conditioner’s filter?
In a word: yes. A grimy filter gained’t do your well being any favors, significantly if it’s harboring micro organism or different disease- or allergy-causing grime.
However the well being of your cooling system could also be an much more urgent concern. “For those who let that gunk construct up in your filter, you possibly can destroy your system,” says Francis Dietz, vp of public affairs on the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, a producer’s commerce affiliation. “The air can not get by way of that filter, so it backs up into the system and it freezes up.” (In need of a complete system meltdown, Siegel says, it’s possible you’ll merely discover that it’s not working in addition to normal.)
Precisely how typically you must change or clear your filter depends upon the producer’s directions and the way closely you employ your system, Siegel says, however roughly each three months is an effective ballpark estimate.
Is it okay to run air con on a regular basis?
From a mechanical perspective, a correctly maintained system must be advantageous to run 24/7, Dietz says. However an previous or uncared for unit might die underneath the pressure of fixed use—therefore why many individuals’s methods “conk out” throughout a heatwave, he says. Save your self the emergency restore prices and schedule a routine service appointment each spring, Dietz suggests. And take into account that the common central air-conditioning system has a lifespan of about 15 years. Particularly if yours is getting near that time, Dietz says, it’s price having it inspected earlier than an issue arises.
Even when it’s technically attainable, although, continually working your AC does have downsides, says Stan Cox, creator of Dropping Our Cool: Uncomfortable Truths About Our Air-Conditioned World. Your utility payments will soar, as will your energy usage. Air conditioners use about 6% of all electrical energy produced within the U.S. and account for the discharge of 117 million metric tons of carbon dioxide into the environment annually, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Meaning the methods we depend on for cooling are actively contributing to our warming planet.
Studies also suggest that the human physique can build tolerance to heat by way of publicity—so utterly avoiding heat by shutting your self in a refrigerated room on the first signal of spring thaw means it’s possible you’ll be further depressing come August. “Our consolation vary just isn’t fastened,” Cox says. “It strikes up and down relying on the temperatures you’re uncovered to.”
Why does air con make you are feeling sick?
Some individuals expertise respiratory signs, like a runny nostril or scratchy throat, after sleeping in a closely air-conditioned room. Which may be the results of a unclean system, Siegel says, or it might be attributable to an absence of air flow. Air-con additionally removes humidity from the air, Cox says, and that dryness can contribute to signs like sore throats and complications.
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More often than not, these signs aren’t trigger for nice concern. However contaminated cooling methods have been linked to severe diseases like Legionnaires’ disease and may also trigger an allergic reaction that results in lung irritation.
Which kind of air conditioner is most effective?
Generally, central AC is most effective for those who’re making an attempt to chill a complete home as a result of it has “economies of scale,” Dietz says. It’s designed to achieve each nook and cranny of your own home utilizing one comparatively compact system, whereas you’d want numerous window models or mini-splits for those who cooled every room individually.
However, Cox says, it’s price contemplating how a lot of your own home truly must be cooled. You possibly can, for instance, place window models or mini-splits in your bedrooms for in a single day use and easily use fans in living spaces. That will not be a viable choice relying on your loved ones’s schedule, residing area, and native local weather, however such a system “makes use of loads much less electrical energy than preserving the entire home cooled off repeatedly,” Cox says.
Is there a minimal or most temperature at which you must use AC?
Numerous individuals have guidelines about once they’ll activate their AC for the primary time—not earlier than June 1, say, or not earlier than the temperatures prime 80°F—however these are simply private preferences, Dietz says. There’s no purpose you possibly can’t use your air conditioner on a light day, other than considerations about vitality utilization.
For those who’re on the fence about whether or not it’s scorching sufficient to show in your AC, nonetheless, Cox recommends making an attempt a fan first. You might be stunned by how effectively followers work, both on their very own or as a means of lowering your air-conditioning utilization. Research has even shown that folks don’t really feel any distinction between cranked-up AC versus a fan paired with AC on a decrease setting.
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“If the ambient air is cooler than your physique, the fan is flooding your physique with air that’s decrease than your pores and skin temperature and blowing away the nice and cozy air that accumulates across the floor of your pores and skin,” Cox explains. Circulating the air round you additionally helps sweat evaporate from your skin, a key a part of the cooling course of.
That mentioned, fans don’t work on scorching-hot days, when the air round you is hotter than your physique temperature. In these circumstances, you must resort to air con, both in your house or at a neighborhood cooling heart.
You might discover that even your AC isn’t as efficient as normal on a particularly scorching day, as a result of it has to work tougher to switch warmth from your own home’s inside to the out of doors air, Siegel says. Nonetheless, so long as your unit is correctly maintained, it ought to work effectively sufficient to maintain you cool and secure on even the most well liked of summer season days.
