Is Air Conditioners And Air Coolers Are The Same?

There seems to be a lot of confusion out there about mobile air conditioners and swamp coolers. They are not interchangeable. An air conditioner cools, or conditions, the atmosphere by removing heat energy. The end result is that the atmosphere has less heat energy, so the whole space is cooled. They do this with a heat pump. Heat pumps are found in all types of air conditioners, in addition to refrigerators.

In a heat pump, a liquid with special properties, called a refrigerant, is enlarged slowly through a valve into low pressure tubing known as the evaporator, or growth coil. As it expands, the heat energy in the refrigerant becomes less focused, and it gets very cold. This is the cooling side, where heat from the air passing over it today is easily absorbed by the cold aluminium tube, which then warms the refrigerant also.

After the refrigerant circulates to the compression coil, or condenser, it is pumped into small, high pressure tubing. Each of the heat energy being brought in the evaporator coil is now squeezed into a smaller volume, and the refrigerant gets extremely hot. This is the sexy side. The coil warms up and easily releases the extra heat to the air blowing over the side. In a mobile air conditioner, this air is blown out through the exhaust duct.

Portable air conditioners use the heat pump system, and are designed as room air conditioners. In some, the flow of refrigerant can be reversed, which causes the heater function found in these versions. In contrast, evaporative air coolers, or swamp coolers, do not eliminate Heat energy from the atmosphere, and look at this site https://www.worthview.com/air-conditioners-air-coolers-thing/. The expression ‘super-fan’ could be implemented here. Swamp coolers cool atmosphere by blowing it on a wet wick.

Moisture from the wick evaporates, cooling the air blown by the fan. So it seems cool in the front of the device, but nowhere else. No heat is removed from the atmosphere, but moisture is added, so the room itself contains the same quantity of heat energy and is not cooled. Swamp coolers are not able to warm the atmosphere.

The added moisture out of a swamp cooler can make the room uncomfortably Humid, particularly where ambient humidity is currently large. They are best suited to dry climates, used as spot coolers. Swamp coolers look somewhat like portable ac units, but do not have exhaust ducts. Advertisement photos of mobile ac’s tend to exit the exhaust ducts, likely adding to the confusion. Adding to the confusion is that the term ‘evaporative portable air Conditioner’, used by some producers. The name advertises a function these units have, that being the evaporation of the water those condensates through the heat pump cycle.

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