Useful properties of air conditioner
Air conditioner can be used not only to cool the air in the rooms, but also to heat it, that is, this unit may well act as a heating device. Heating by an air conditioner is economically justified, and in many cases it can be even more profitable than a standard heating system. For a standard room, the selection of the air conditioner is made according to the norm of 100 watts per 1 m2. Recommendation: if you have a sunny side or a big panoramic window, you should perform individual calculation with your manager, because you may need more than 100 W/m2 for cooling.
The compressor is the heart of the air conditioner
The inverter compressor is more modern and energy efficient, especially when working on heating. On/off(usual) compressor is a classical compressor, ideal for work on cooling. Recommendation: if one needs to heat and cool a premise, then inverter conditioner is good for that, and if only to cool, on/off (ordinary) conditioner will be enough. Standard is an air conditioner, which operates to heat up to -15 ℃. Their primary function is cooling, and heating is an additional.
An air-to-air heat pump is an air conditioner that operates for heating from -15 ℃ and below. Real experts from heating. Let's take for example the off-season (early spring-late autumn). It is not necessary to run the main heating system in a private house or cottage.
For keeping comfortable temperature conditions it is enough to switch on a split-system for heating in that room where you are. Work of conditioner at heating is topical also for city apartments, where the beginning and the end of a heating season not always coincide with the warm weather establishment on the streets. Certainly one can object, saying that for such cases there are electric heaters and oil radiators.
But let's remind that systems of conditioning, due to peculiarities of their functioning, always give out many times more power than they take in. A standard electric heater gives 0,8-0,9 kWt in the form of heat for each consumed kWt. At the same time space heating by air conditioner enables to receive 2-3 kilowatt of heat from one kilowatt of electrical energy, and in specialized models it is up to 5 kilowatt! It is necessary to notice that the given indexes are correct for temperature modes no lower than -5°C. In most cases split-systems are produced with a counting on the fact that conditioner will not work for heating at temperatures lower than this mark.
The fact is that air conditioning systems convert («take away») heat from outside air. If it is 10 degrees below the window°C, correspondingly, they have no place to take this heat. Besides, at very low temperatures one can observe problems with freezing of the outside block, condensate freezing and change of physical properties of the used coolant.
Remember: if you decide to buy a split-system without additional equipment «Winter» options, it is recommended to use it for heating when the temperature outside is not lower than -5°C! So, the opportunity to use conditioner as a heater is actual only for the interseasonal period? By all means ! Modern conditioner systems provide effective heating even at the temperature of -25°C! To install a winter set, which is a special system that controls the speed of the fan to prevent the outside unit from freezing.
In addition, the winter set of the air conditioner eliminates the freezing of drainage and compressor oil. Through the modernization of a unit it is possible to avoid the majority of problems and to increase a temperature range of air conditioner's work in winter for heating till 15°C. To buy a winter conditioner. Leading manufacturers have developed specialized models for regions where low temperatures prevail. Winter split-systems with heat pumps like Mitsubishi Zubadan, for example, have built-in heating and frost protection technology, allowing them to operate efficiently in a heating mode, even when the window up to -30°C!
Thus, we found out that heating with an air conditioner is possible, and even very profitable. No need to install separate heating systems. No need for air conditioning «canning» for the winter. Affordable energy – electricity. Minimum interference in the interior design of the premises.
No permits or approvals required, such as with gas heating. It is possible to fine-tune the temperature regime. Control of air conditioner operation is very simple and performed with remote control.