Air Conditioning works by transferring energy (heat) from one place to another. Simply speaking, if we are trying to heat a room inside a house, we will absorb heat energy that is in the outside air and then release this energy inside.
The magic happens by the use of a refrigerant which assists this process. Similarly, when we are trying to cool a room, we are taking the heat energy inside a room and transferring to the air outside of the house.
Having fans blowing over radiator fins (coils) allows us to control how much air we want to heat or cool. We can then transfer this through ductwork and outlets for a ducted system or straight out of the indoor unit on a split system.
Reverse cycle air conditioning is a system that has both cooling and heating functions within the same appliance. The same process is used to cool and heat your home, just reversed. So to cool, warm air is sucked into the system, converted to cool air and blown back out again. Whereas to heat your home, cool air is sucked in and converted to warm air before being blown back out again.
This question is difficult to answer unless we know exactly what your requirements are. The most popular type of AC in todays market is the Split System. It’s economical, quick to install and requires very little maintenance.
Willis Haviland Carrier developed the first modern air conditioning system back in 1902. As a young electrical engineer he was commissioned to solve a humidity problem at a successful publishing company in Brooklyn, New York. The publishing company encountered endless problems with their printing processes when the paper stock absorbed moisture in the air during the hot summer months.
Carrier understood that warm air holds more moisture than cool air so essentially if he was able to control the temperature of the air he could control the amount of humidity. He did this by introducing a system that involved blowing the humid air across chilled pipes. This process cooled the air as it passed across the pipes which reduced the amount of moisture in the air. As a ‘side effect’ the temperature within the factory lowered substantially which proved extremely popular with the staff during the hot summer months. So what started as a solution to assist the printing process back in 1902 soon became something much much more. On average almost 50% of Australian households now have air conditioning installed and that number keeps growing every year!