Most of the time, we let our air conditioners cool down space (volumes of warm air) that we do not need to use. This is not only a waste of energy; it also reduces the cooling capability of our air conditioning units. One simple way to solve this problem is to install partitions within certain sections your rooms. This will allow you to selectively cutoff portions of the room that you are not using. This is especially true at night when you are sleeping and are in your beds through out the night.
Selection of the type of partition to use is critical for this to work. If you use blinds that allow air to easily flow through, the partition will not be effective in keeping the warm and cool air separated. The use of roller blinds to partition your rooms is very effective especially the ones that hang down from the ceiling. Choose materials such as vinyl or canvas. Cloth Roman blinds will work as well but do make sure the weave is tight enough to do the job.
The reason this works well is cool air sinks to the bottom of the room and hot air rises to the top. By cutting off the hot air from parts of the room that you do not use, the area that matters will remain cool. Thus the hot air is prevented from reaching the air conditioner and taxing it unnecessarily.
So make sure that when you install the blinds from the ceiling. Do not leave gaps from above for the air to flow through. The remaining gaps at the bottom of the blind or to the sides of the blind are acceptable since the cold air sinks and hot air rises.
Normally, when the air conditioner cools the room, the cold air sinks to the bottom and floats across the room. The displaced cold air causes the hot air in the room to move towards the air conditioner intake.
When a room partition is setup, as the room fills with cold air, the hot air behind the partition is trapped by the denser cold air. Thus this prevents the air conditioner from cooling that section of the air unnecessarily. This trapped warm air also prevents more cold air from filling up the rest of room through the gap below the blind partition. Effectively an invisible seal is created that traps all the cold air within the partition area making the room seem smaller to the air conditioner. Hence the air conditioner will not need to work as hard and maintaining the cold set point will be a lot easier.
With summer comes the headache of having to fix up your air-conditioning system. Usually you will not need to fix it up if the air-conditioner is new, but if it is slightly aged, you probably will have one problem or the other to deal with. As we all must've experienced by now, the cost of calling a repair man is way too much and you always get the feeling that he is taking advantage of you. You might think that fixing a air-conditioner needs a lot of training, but it actually does not require all that much expertise.
You just need to have your basics right in order fix the minor problems for which your repairman charges you a bomb. This is not rocket-science and it is something that the layman will understand. However, since the air-conditioning system is usually a very expensive appliance (probably the most expensive electric appliance) in the house, most of us hesitate to do something on your own. The usual worry is that you will break and then will be forced to buy a new one.
Actually, all you have to do is read up a bit on the basic mechanism of the air-conditioner to be able to tell what is broken and what is not. That way, you will not run the risk of being fooled by your repairman. Learning about AC systems is much easier now, thanks to the Internet. There is a lot of knowledge that is shared on the Internet and you can greatly benefit from it. There is nothing like a good DIY book to help you get started on your repairing project,
Other than the basic ways of troubleshooting the AC, it is also important to know what kind of an AC to get and how big or small it should be. The saddest part is that most people in the industry do not bother to give you a correct estimate of how much capacity you need and hence they will often misguide you during buying your AC. You need to have your AC at just the right capacity to avoid problems of too much moisture or too little cooling on especially hot days.
Once you have read the self-help guidelines, you will understand what those gosh-darned fins, grills and coils are and what they do to your AC. You will learn about compressors and how they work. The compressor is the main part of your AC that is responsible for cooling the air. Then this air is pushed by machine into the ducts so that they reach you. Coils on the other hand, heat the air and then the hot air is pushed through the ducting. The thermostat is what is used to control the temperature.
You will learn about these things and much more with the right book. Then once you know what works and how, you can fix your AC on your own and not have to pay a huge bill to a repairman.
Both James Macgyver & Gen Wright are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
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