Air conditioning (often referred to as AC, A.C.

, or A/C) is the process of remov

ing heat from a confined space, thus cooling the air, and removing humidity. Thi
s process is used to achieve a more comfortable interior environments, typically
for humans or animals; however, air conditioners are also used to cool rooms fi
lled with heat-producing electronic devices, such as computer servers or power a
mplifiers. Air conditioners often use a fan to distribute the conditioned air to
an occupied space such as a building or a car to improve thermal comfort and in
door air quality. Electric refrigerant-based AC units range from small units tha
t can cool a small bedroom, which can be carried by a single adult to massive un
its installed on the roof of office towers that can cool an entire building. The
cooling is typically achieved through a refrigeration cycle, but sometimes evap
oration or free cooling is used. Air conditioning systems can also be made based
on desiccants. (chemicals which remove moisture from the air)[1]
In the most general sense, air conditioning can refer to any form of technology
that modifies the condition of air (heating, cooling, (de-)humidification, clean
ing, ventilation, or air movement). In common usage, though, "air conditioning"
refers to systems which cool air. In construction, a complete system of heating,
ventilation, and air conditioning is referred to as heating, ventilation, and a
ir conditioning (HVAC
as opposed to AC).[2]
Evaporative cooling[edit]
Since prehistoric times, snow and ice were used for cooling. The business of har
vesting ice during winter and storing for use in summer became popular towards t
he late 17th century.[3] This practice was replaced by mechanical ice-making mac
hines.
The basic concept behind air conditioning is said to have been applied in ancien
t Egypt, where reeds were hung in windows and were moistened with trickling wate
r. The evaporation of water cooled the air blowing through the window. This proc
ess also made the air more humid, which can be beneficial in a dry desert climat
e. In Ancient Rome, water from aqueducts was circulated through the walls of cer
tain houses to cool them. Other techniques in medieval Persia involved the use o
f cisterns and wind towers to cool buildings during the hot season.[4]
The 2nd-century Chinese inventor Ding Huan (fl 180) of the Han Dynasty invented
a rotary fan for air conditioning, with seven wheels 3 m (10 ft) in diameter and
manually powered by prisoners of the time.[5] In 747, Emperor Xuanzong (r. 712 76
2) of the Tang Dynasty (618 907) had the Cool Hall (Liang Tian) built in the imper
ial palace, which the Tang Yulin describes as having water-powered fan wheels fo
r air conditioning as well as rising jet streams of water from fountains. During
the subsequent Song Dynasty (960 1279), written sources mentioned the air conditi
oning rotary fan as even more widely used.[6]
In the 17th century, Cornelis Drebbel demonstrated "Turning Summer into Winter"
for James I of England by adding salt to water.[7]
Development of mechanical cooling[edit]
Three-quarters scale model of Gorrie's ice machine John Gorrie State Museum, Flo
rida
Modern air conditioning emerged from advances in chemistry during the 19th centu
ry, and the first large-scale electrical air conditioning was invented and used
in 1902 by American inventor Willis Carrier. The introduction of residential air
conditioning in the 1920s helped enable the great migration to the Sun Belt in
the United States.
In 1758, Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley, a chemistry professor at Cambridge U
niversity, conducted an experiment to explore the principle of evaporation as a
means to rapidly cool an object. Franklin and Hadley confirmed that evaporation
of highly volatile liquids (such as alcohol and ether) could be used to drive do

wn the temperature of an object past the freezing point of water. They conducted
their experiment with the bulb of a mercury thermometer as their object and wit
h a bellows used to speed-up the evaporation. They lowered the temperature of th
e thermometer bulb down to -14 C (7 F) while the ambient temperature was 18 C (64 F)
. Franklin noted that, soon after they passed the freezing point of water 0 C (32
F), a thin film of ice formed on the surface of the thermometer's bulb and that
the ice mass was about 6 mm (1/4 in) thick when they stopped the experiment upon
reaching -14 C (7 F). Franklin concluded: "From this experiment one may see the p
ossibility of freezing a man to death on a warm summer's day"[8]
In 1820, English scientist and inventor Michael Faraday discovered that compress
ing and liquefying ammonia could chill air when the liquefied ammonia was allowe
d to evaporate. In 1842, Florida physician John Gorrie used compressor technolog
y to create ice, which he used to cool air for his patients in his hospital in A
palachicola, Florida. He hoped to eventually use his ice-making machine to regul
ate the temperature of buildings. He even envisioned centralized air conditionin
g that could cool entire cities. Though his prototype leaked and performed irreg
ularly, Gorrie was granted a patent in 1851 for his ice-making machine. Improved
process for the artificial production of ice. His hopes for its success vanishe
d soon afterwards when his chief financial backer died; Gorrie did not get the m
oney he needed to develop the machine. According to his biographer, Vivian M. Sh
erlock, he blamed the "Ice King", Frederic Tudor, for his failure, suspecting th
at Tudor had launched a smear campaign against his invention. Dr. Gorrie died im
poverished in 1855, and the idea of air conditioning went away for 50 years.
James Harrison's first mechanical ice-making machine began operation in 1851 on
the banks of the Barwon River at Rocky Point in Geelong (Australia). His first c
ommercial ice-making machine followed in 1854, and his patent for an ether vapor
compression refrigeration system was granted in 1855. This novel system used a
compressor to force the refrigeration gas to pass through a condenser, where it
cooled down and liquefied. The liquefied gas then circulated through the refrige
ration coils and vaporized again, cooling down the surrounding system. The machi
ne employed a flywheel and produced 3,000 kilograms of ice per day.
Though Harrison had commercial success establishing a second ice company back in
Sydney in 1860, he later entered the debate over how to compete against the Ame
rican advantage of unrefrigerated beef sales to the United Kingdom. He wrote: "F
resh meat frozen and packed as if for a voyage, so that the refrigerating proces
s may be continued for any required period", and in 1873 prepared the sailing sh
ip Norfolk for an experimental beef shipment to the United Kingdom. His choice o
f a cold room system instead of installing a refrigeration system upon the ship
itself proved disastrous when the ice was consumed faster than expected.
Electromechanical cooling[edit]
Willis Carrier
In 1902, the first modern electrical air conditioning unit was invented by Willi
s Carrier in Buffalo, New York. After graduating from Cornell University, Carrie
r found a job at the Buffalo Forge Company. While there, he began experimenting
with air conditioning as a way to solve an application problem for the Sackett-W
ilhelms Lithographing and Publishing Company in Brooklyn, New York. The first ai
r conditioner, designed and built in Buffalo by Carrier, began working on 17 Jul
y 1902.
Designed to improve manufacturing process control in a printing plant, Carrier's
invention controlled not only temperature but also humidity. Carrier used his k
nowledge of the heating of objects with steam and reversed the process. Instead
of sending air through hot coils, he sent it through cold coils (filled with col
d water). The air was cooled, and thereby the amount of moisture in the air coul
d be controlled, which in turn made the humidity in the room controllable. The c

ontrolled temperature and humidity helped maintain consistent paper dimensions a

nd ink alignment. Later, Carrier's technology was applied to increase productivi
ty in the workplace, and The Carrier Air Conditioning Company of America was for
med to meet rising demand. Over time, air conditioning came to be used to improv
e comfort in homes and automobiles as well. Residential sales expanded dramatica
lly in the 1950s.
In 1906, Stuart W. Cramer of Charlotte, North Carolina was exploring ways to add
moisture to the air in his textile mill. Cramer coined the term "air conditioni
ng", using it in a patent claim he filed that year as an analogue to "water cond
itioning", then a well-known process for making textiles easier to process. He c
ombined moisture with ventilation to "condition" and change the air in the facto
ries, controlling the humidity so necessary in textile plants. Willis Carrier ad
opted the term and incorporated it into the name of his company.[citation needed
]
Shortly thereafter, the first private home to have air conditioning was built in
Minneapolis in 1914, owned by Charles Gates.[9] Realizing that air conditioning
would one day be a standard feature of private homes, particularly in regions w
ith warmer climate, David St. Pierre DuBose (1898-1994) designed a network of du
ctwork and vents for his home Meadowmont, all disguised behind intricate and att
ractive Georgian-style open moldings.[when?] This building is believed to be one
of the first private homes in the United States equipped for central air condit
ioning.[10]
In 1945, Robert Sherman of Lynn, Massachusetts invented a portable, in-window ai
r conditioner that cooled, heated, humidified, dehumidified, and filtered the ai
r.[11]
Refrigerant development[edit]
Main article: Refrigerant
A modern R-134a hermetic refrigeration compressor
The first air conditioners and refrigerators employed toxic or flammable gases,
such as ammonia, methyl chloride, or propane, that could result in fatal acciden
ts when they leaked. Thomas Midgley, Jr. created the first non-flammable, non-to
xic chlorofluorocarbon gas, Freon, in 1928. The name is a trademark name owned b
y DuPont for any chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC), or hy
drofluorocarbon (HFC) refrigerant. The refrigerant names include a number indica
ting the molecular composition (e.g., R-11, R-12, R-22, R-134A). The blend most
used in direct-expansion home and building comfort cooling is an HCFC known as c
hlorodifluoromethane (R-22).
Dichlorodifluoromethane (R-12) was the most common blend used in automobiles in
the US until 1994, when most designs changed to R-134A due to the ozone-depletin
g potential of R-12. R-11 and R-12 are no longer manufactured in the US for this
type of application, so the only source for air-conditioning repair purposes is
the cleaned and purified gas recovered from other air conditioner systems. Seve
ral non-ozone-depleting refrigerants have been developed as alternatives, includ
ing R-410A. It was first commercially used by Carrier Corp. under the brand name
Puron.
Modern refrigerants have been developed to be more environmentally safe than man
y of the early chlorofluorocarbon-based refrigerants used in the early- and midtwentieth century. These include HCFCs (R-22, as used in most U.S. homes even be
fore 2011) and HFCs (R-134a, used in most cars) have replaced most CFC use. HCFC
s, in turn, are supposed to have been in the process of being phased out under t
he Montreal Protocol and replaced by HFCs such as R-410A, which lack chlorine.[c
itation needed] HFCs, however, contribute to climate change problems. Moreover,
policy and political influence by corporate executives resisted change.[12][13]

Corporations insisted that no alternatives to HFCs existed. The environmental or

ganization Greenpeace solicited a European laboratory to research an alternative
ozone- and climate-safe refrigerant in 1992, gained patent rights to a hydrocar
bon mix of isopentane and isobutane, but then left the technology as open access
.[14][15] Their activist marketing first in Germany led to companies like Whirlp
ool, Bosch, and later LG and others to incorporate the technology throughout Eur
ope, then Asia, although the corporate executives resisted in Latin America, so
that it arrived in Argentina produced by a domestic firm in 2003, and then final
ly with giant Bosch's production in Brazil by 2004.[16][17] In 1995, Germany mad
e CFC refrigerators illegal.[18] DuPont and other companies blocked the refriger
ant in the U.S. with the U.S. E.P.A., disparaging the approach as "that German t
echnology."[17][19] Nevertheless, in 2004, Greenpeace worked with multinational
corporations like Coca-Cola and Unilever, and later Pepsico and others, to creat
e a corporate coalition called Refrigerants Naturally!.[18][20] Then, four years
later, Ben & Jerry's of Unilever and General Electric began to take steps to su
pport production and use in the U.S.[21] Only in 2011 did the E.P.A. finally dec
ide in favor of the ozone- and climate-safe refrigerant for U.S. manufacture.[14
][22][23]
Operating principles[edit]
Refrigeration cycle[edit]
Main article: Heat pump and refrigeration cycle
A simple stylized diagram of the refrigeration cycle: 1) condensing coil, 2) exp
ansion valve, 3) evaporator coil, 4) compressor
Capillary expansion valve connection to evaporator inlet. Notice frost formation
In the refrigeration cycle, heat is transported from a colder location to a hott
er area. As heat would naturally flow in the opposite direction, work is require
d to achieve this. A refrigerator is an example of such a system, as it transpor
ts the heat out of the interior and into its environment. The refrigerant is use
d as the medium which absorbs and removes heat from the space to be cooled and s
ubsequently rejects that heat elsewhere.
Circulating refrigerant vapor enters the compressor, where its pressure and temp
erature are increased. The hot, compressed refrigerant vapor is now at a tempera
ture and pressure at which it can be condensed and is routed through a condenser
. Here it is cooled by air flowing across the condenser coils and condensed into
a liquid. Thus, the circulating refrigerant removes heat from the system and th
e heat is carried away by the air. The removal of this heat can be greatly augme
nted by pouring water over the condenser coils, making it much cooler when it hi
ts the expansion valve.
The condensed, pressurized, and still usually somewhat hot liquid refrigerant is
next routed through an expansion valve (often nothing more than a pinhole in th
e system's copper tubing) where it undergoes an abrupt reduction in pressure. Th
at pressure reduction results in flash evaporation of a part of the liquid refri
gerant, greatly lowering its temperature. The cold refrigerant is then routed th
rough the evaporator. A fan blows the interior warm air (which is to be cooled)
across the evaporator, causing the liquid part of the cold refrigerant mixture t
o evaporate as well, further lowering the temperature. The warm air is therefore
cooled and is pumped by an exhaust fan/ blower into the room.
To complete the refrigeration cycle, the refrigerant vapor is routed back into t
he compressor. In order for the process to have any efficiency, the cooling/ eva
porative portion of the system must be separated by some kind of physical barrie
r from the heating/ condensing portion, and each portion must have its own fan t
o circulate its own "kind" of air (either the hot air or the cool air). Modern a
ir conditioning systems are not designed to draw air into the room from the outs
ide, they only recirculate the increasingly cool air on the inside. Because this

inside air always has some amount of moisture suspended in it, the cooling port
ion of the process always causes ambient warm water vapor to condense on the coo
ling coils and to drip from them down onto a catch tray at the bottom of the uni
t from which it must then be routed outside, usually through a drain hole.
As this moisture has no dissolved minerals in it, it never causes mineral buildu
p on the coils, though if the unit is set at its strongest cooling setting and h
appens to have inadequate circulation of air through the coils and also experien
ces a failure of the thermistor which senses the ambient temperature in the room
, the coil's fins can develop a layer of ice which will then grow and eventually
block the circulation of air on the cool side of the unit altogether in a posit
ive feedback loop that will cause the formation of an ice block inside the unit:
only minuscule amounts of cool air will then manage to come from the exhaust ve
nt until this ice is removed or is allowed to melt. This will happen even if the
ambient humidity level is low: once ice begins to form on the evaporative fins,
it will reduce circulation efficiency and cause the development of more ice, et
c. A clean and strong circulatory fan can help prevent this, as will raising the
target cool temperature of the unit's thermostat to a point that the compressor
is allowed to turn off occasionally. A failing thermistor may also cause this p
roblem. This is the same issue faced by refrigerators that do not have a defrost
cycle. Dust can also cause the fins to begin blocking air flow with the same un
desirable result: ice.
By running an air conditioner's compressor in the opposite direction, the overal
l effect can be completely reversed and the indoor compartment will become heate
d instead of cooled. See heat pump. The engineering of physical and thermodynami
c properties of gas vapor mixtures is called psychrometrics.