Solar-powered AC Units

Going Green

Solar power is one of the newest most economic ways to get power. So why not solar-power your ac unit? The solar air conditioner/solar heater is powered by solar energy collected in the evacuated tube solar thermal panels (see below). The thermal energy is delivered to the solar powered chiller using a Glycol (antifreeze) solution and a simple but carefully designed system of pipes, pumps and controllers. Solar heating and cooling in the winter, even when it is below freezing outside, our special evacuated tube solar thermal collectors produce an abundance of heat that will be transferred into your building/house, either reducing or eliminating the operation of your existing heating system.
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Our solar heating and air conditioning units can be used anywhere that the sun shines; they are low in operating and maintenance costs. They consume little or no electrical energy - essentially the only parts that use electricity are low amp fan motors and small pumps that move the thermal transfer fluid (Glycol, a food-grade antifreeze) from the collectors to the chiller and then back up to the collectors - all of these small electrical loads can run from solar PV panels if desired. Inside the unit is another small pump that circulates the refrigerant. There is no "compressor" to consume power

Energy Star Light Bulbs

Energy Star Light Bulbs

This article is referenced from http://www.energystar.gov/

Did You Know?

If every American home replaced just one light with an ENERGY STAR light, we would save enough energy to light more than 3 million homes for a year, about $700 million in annual energy costs, and prevent 9 billion pounds of greenhouse gas emissions per year, equivalent to the emissions of about 800,000 cars
CFL Light Bulbs

An ENERGY STAR qualified compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) will save about $30 over its lifetime and pay for itself in about 6 months. It uses 75 percent less energy and lasts about 10 times longer than an incandescent bulb.
How CFL’s Work

CFLs produce light differently than incandescent bulbs. In an incandescent, electric current runs through a wire filament and heats the filament until it starts to glow. In a CFL, an electric current is driven through a tube containing argon and a small amount of mercury vapor. This generates invisible ultraviolet light that excites a fluorescent coating (called phosphor) on the inside of the tube, which then emits visible light.

CFLs need a little more energy when they are first turned on, but once the electricity starts moving, use about 75 percent less energy than incandescent bulbs. A CFL’s ballast helps "kick start" the CFL and then regulates the current once the electricity starts flowing.

Older CFLs used large and heavy magnetic ballasts that caused a buzzing noise in some bulbs. Most CFLs today — and all ENERGY STAR qualified CFLs — use electronic ballasts, which do not buzz or hum.

Please visit Energy Star for more information

Window and Split-system AC Units

A window air conditioner unit implements a complete air conditioner in a small space. The units are made small enough to fit into a standard window frame. You close the window down on the unit, plug it in and turn it on to get cool air. If you take the cover off of an unplugged window unit, you'll find that it contains:

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A compressor
An expansion valve
A hot coil (on the outside)
A chilled coil (on the inside)
Two fans
A control unit

The fans blow air over the coils to improve their ability to dissipate heat (to the outside air) and cold (to the room being cooled).

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When you get into larger air-conditioning applications, its time to start looking at split-system units. A split-system air conditioner splits the hot side from the cold side of the system, like this:
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The cold side, consisting of the expansion valve and the cold coil, is generally placed into a furnace or some other air handler. The air handler blows air through the coil and routes the air throughout the building using a series of ducts. The hot side, known as the condensing unit, lives outside the building.

The unit consists of a long, spiral coil shaped like a cylinder. Inside the coil is a fan, to blow air through the coil, along with a weather-resistant compressor and some control logic. This approach has evolved over the years because it's low-cost, and also because it normally results in reduced noise inside the house (at the expense of increased noise outside the house). Other than the fact that the hot and cold sides are split apart and the capacity is higher (making the coils and compressor larger), there's no difference between a split-system and a window air conditioner.

In warehouses, large business offices, malls, big department stores and other sizeable buildings, the condensing unit normally lives on the roof and can be quite massive. Alternatively, there may be many smaller units on the roof, each attached inside to a small air handler that cools a specific zone in the building.

In larger buildings and particularly in multi-story buildings, the split-system approach begins to run into problems. Either running the pipe between the condenser and the air handler exceeds distance limitations (runs that are too long start to cause lubrication difficulties in the compressor), or the amount of duct work and the length of ducts becomes unmanageable. At this point, it's time to think about a chilled-water system

AC Bandit Finally Arrested

Have you noticed a few key parts missing from your AC unit? Rest assured, the AC burglar has been arrested. The burglar was brought into custody last Thursday February 4th after his girlfriend bragged to friends about there joy ride all over Ocala stealing AC parts for cash.

Make sure to not only lock your doors but keep a close eye on your unit. If the ac bandit strikes again make sure to call Schwenn Mechanical @ 407-895-7550 or click here to contact us online.

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