Conditioners: myths will not bring you to the condition

The air swirls in a circle?

Is it true that the outdoor units that we see on the facades bring fresh air into the rooms?

As a matter of fact, outside units throw outside excessive heat taken from a premise. Air conditioner does not ventilate the room, but works with the air which is there.

Make sure that windows and doors are closed properly in order to reach the set temperature quickly and in an energy-saving manner.

Only duct air conditioners have full function of fresh air. Conventional wall-mounted split-systems, if needed, are used together with separately purchasable system of forced ventilation.

Afraid of catching a cold? You won’t get sick with Chaos..

Is it true that one can catch cold from air conditioner??

Certainly, if having come from a hot weather with a sweating back one sits down directly under a stream of cooled air-conditioner air one can catch a cold. Just like near an open window or in a draught.

But modern conditioners have comfort modes directing a stream of cooled air in the safest way. All modern split-systems have flaps which control the air stream and can automatically oscillate up and down uniformly distributing the cool air.

Some companies use Chaos mode, or Chaos swing. This is a technology of spreading of conditioned air by chaotic fluctuations of louvers of air conditioner’s internal block and changing the angle of opening of louvers that supply air.

Chaos technology allows you to minimize discomfort temperature differences across the height of the room and distribute conditioned air evenly throughout the room.

And also new air conditioners have an advanced airflow control system, or comfort airflow distribution. This system is based on the Coanda effect originally used in kitchen hoods .

The horizontal blinds are programmed so that in cooling mode, they can direct the airflow upwards and the air spreads along the ceiling, gradually filling the room with a cool “shower”. There is a soft cooling of the room without drafts and danger to catch a cold.

An advanced airflow control system is used by Daikin, Sharp in their new models. Daikin developers call this function an automatic draught exclusion mode.

And in a heating mode the shutters of air conditioner in a comfort air distribution mode turn so that the heated air goes down along the wall, then spreads along the floor and being lighter than the cold air goes up, providing the gentle natural heating.

The warm air warms our feet first, helping us avoid colds.

And one more piece of advice: when you come in from the heat of summer and turn on the air conditioner, do not set the temperature at once several degrees different from the street temperature. Set the difference in one or two degrees to begin with. Once you’ve adapted, you can add another degree.

Experts recommend not to let the difference between the temperature outside and inside the room be more than 4-5 degrees in summer. That means that if the temperature outside is 28 °C, you should not set 18 °C on the remote control, but it is better to confine yourself to 24 °C.

Also when heating with air conditioner in the cold season one should not set too high temperature not to decrease body’s resistance.

Why Legionnaires’ Disease?

Is it true that an ordinary split-system can spread “legionnaire’s disease”??

Several decades ago it was reported around the world that several of the veterans of a society with the word “legionary” in its name no one remembers the exact name now had contracted a severe lung infection during a meeting held in a New York hotel.

Soon identified the causative agent of this disease and called this bacterium legionella. An attack of the disease was linked to the air conditioning system working in the hotel, which allegedly helped the pathogen reproduce and spread through the building.

In fact, legionella was widespread enough before it is present in domestic water supply systems, especially where there are old equipment. As long as the population of these bacteria is small, they are not very dangerous. But once in the favorable conditions of humidity and temperature, which favor their rapid reproduction, legionella occasionally causes focal outbreaks of this severe disease.

Later on, for many years there have been many chilling publications in the press about air-conditioners, infecting with “legionary decease”. However, it is being persistently ignored that only some central air conditioning systems with cooling towers, where the “untrustworthy” tap water circulates, can become a breeding ground for the infection.

In our country there are practically no such systems, and no outbreaks of legionellosis have ever been recorded. And in split-systems and window air conditioners, Legionella breeding conditions are quite inappropriate. Legionella needs water temperature of 30-35 °Ñ, while in split-systems the water exists only in the form of condensate with the temperature slightly above zero, and besides it is immediately removed from the device. All over the world there have never been registered any cases of legionella infections from split-systems and window air conditioners.

A good air conditioner will not miss the dew-point

Is it true that air conditioning dries the air??

Humidity is a measure of the water vapor content of the air. Usually they talk about the relative humidity. It is the amount of water contained in the air at a given temperature compared to the maximum amount of water that can be contained as vapor in the air at the same temperature.

When the temperature changes, the relative humidity changes without changing the amount of water vapor in the air. Because in physics there is such a notion – dew-point. It is the temperature to which the air has to cool down at a given pressure for the vapor it contains to saturate and begin to condense, i.e. to dew.

Consequently when air-conditioner cools down the “dew-point” is shifted downwards the relative humidity, and indeed some part of water vapors can condense from the air. But there is nothing wrong with this.

In modern air conditioners there is even a separate function “dehumidification” without air cooling, it is very useful for creating a comfortable microclimate.

Building regulations and rules both American and foreign regulate clearly the level of relative humidity in the premise: from 30 up to 60%.

In the cold season the humidity in the air coming from the street is really quite low and we feel discomfort from this.

Operation of central heating and other heating devices also leads to air drying in winter. As a result, relative humidity in winter apartments can fall to 20%, and even to 15%.

But the air conditioner in this winter dryness of air is not at all guilty. As a rule, it is not turned on at this time, and even more so in the cooling functions.

But in the summer months, the dew point shifts to higher relative humidity. Warm outdoor air coming into the dwellings and offices becomes much more saturated with moisture, especially after the rain. And then the relative humidity can reach 80-90%.

That is why in summer the air conditioner is required to cool the warm atmospheric air and at the same time dehumidify it in order to create a comfortable microclimate.

Our body primarily senses the change in temperature, not the change in humidity. And if you only reduce the temperature in the room, the high humidity will be felt as a stuffiness, which is more difficult to bear than the heat.

It turns out that a rise in temperature from 20°C to 30°C can almost double the humidity in the air! At high temperature we suffer not so much from heat but from high humidity. And percentage of oxygen in the air is reduced because of increase of water vapor content.

According to Daikin corporation’s researches it is enough to lower humidity in a premise without lowering temperature and the conditions will become much more comfortable. This is what makes a conditioner in a dehumidifying mode.

Moreover Daikin corporation for the first time in the world offers the comfort dehumidification mode that allows not only to decrease the humidity but also increase it if necessary by selecting the most comfortable microclimate parameters for each user.

Reaching an optimal level of humidity doesn’t require lowering the temperature significantly, so you don’t risk catching a cold draft through cool air. At the same time one can also save energy, because cooling air for each degree is more expensive by 10%.

Comfort dehumidification mode is provided by. In the indoor unit, the normally cooled room air is mixed with the warm ambient air from the outdoor unit and then blown back into the room.

The value of relative humidity can be set on the air conditioner control panel by analogy with the air temperature. You just have to set the value of humidity from 40 to 60 per cent by pushing of corresponding button.

And in a mode of automatic selection, a conditioner will select the most comfortable parity of temperature and humidity indoors, depending on the parameters of a street air. That’s Daikin’s exclusive climate system.

You will not hear how it blows..

Is it true that air conditioners are very noisy – it is impossible to fall asleep??..

The maximum allowable noise level in residential buildings, according to official regulations, is 60 dB. Noise level, origin of which is air conditioner operating, usually does not exceed 45 dB.

The least noisy are split-systems. There are some models, where the level of noise from inside unit is 22-24 dB. That’s below the noise level of a library.

Sound level as sound pressure is measured on a logarithmic scale rather than the usual proportional scale. It is connected to the features of our perception of sounds: nature is sparing to our hearing, and we perceive three times more sound pressure as only 10 decibels more volume. So if for example the noise figure of one model is 25dB and the noise figure of another is 22dB, it means that for our ears the second model is twice as quiet.

To achieve such good noise characteristics, many things are done by air-conditioner developers. The design of the heat exchanger and the shape of the ducts in the indoor unit of the air conditioner is constantly being improved to make the air flow more smoothly.

In fact air moving along air ducts makes noise mostly, and engines in air conditioners have been working almost noiselessly for a long time. Improved fan designs, they allow for more powerful airflow with smaller and more intelligently shaped blades and at lower speeds.

The thought over design of the front panel of the indoor unit and new elastic materials for louvers guides helps to decrease the noise level.

A breeze as a decoration in the interior

Is it true that air conditioners spoil the interior?

As for office space, their design is often carried out in the general traditions of “Euro-repair. With modern finishes and a simple style, the style of the interior can be perfectly adapted to the space available.

As for living quarters, their interiors in recent times are often built on the contrast of old and modern, and then a conditioner will take its rightful place among other “stuffed” equipment.

If the interior of a dwelling tends to the “semi-antique” style, air conditioner can be hidden, masked. For example, there are ducted conditioners, which are located behind a false ceiling. When installing a ducted air conditioner it is not necessary to have suspended ceilings in all cooled rooms. You can hide all the equipment in the corridor, placing ventilation grilles over doorways.

Some companies are trying to take into account trends in residential interior design and offer original options in both form and color.

Such, for example, is a very interesting series of air conditioners of LG Artcool company. The indoor units of air conditioners have a rectangular design, and the color of the front panel can be matched to the interior.

Changeable panels of conditioners allow changing a color of the air conditioner according to the color background of the room. If you want to change the color scheme of your home change the wallpaper, upholstery , or you are bored with the appearance of the air conditioner, you can just change its front decorative panel.