[sci.electronics] Air conditioners

strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) (06/02/89)

This may not be the right newsgroup, but here goes:

Room air conditioners carry an energy efficiency rating.  It's a number
ranging from around 6 to 10.  How is this number determined?  What units
are we talking about?  My best guess--without knowing what I'm talking
about--is that the number represents number of BTU's per watt of power
consumption under some set of standard conditions.

Anyone?
-- 

Norm   (strong@tc.fluke.com)

sparks@corpane.UUCP (John Sparks) (06/07/89)

In article <8777@fluke.COM> strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) writes:
 >Room air conditioners carry an energy efficiency rating.  It's a number
 >ranging from around 6 to 10.  How is this number determined?  What units
 >are we talking about?  My best guess--without knowing what I'm talking
 >about--is that the number represents number of BTU's per watt of power
 >consumption under some set of standard conditions.

You got it! I just bought an A/C and it had a tag on it with the 'energy
efficiency rating' on it. It said it was the BTU's divided by the wattage.
Refrigerators also carry this number.

-- 
John Sparks   |  {rutgers|uunet}!ukma!corpane!sparks | D.I.S.K. 24hrs 1200bps
[not for RHF] |          sparks@corpane.UUCP         | 502/968-5401 thru -5406 
My interest is in the future because I am going to spend the rest of my
life there.

davidc@vlsisj.VLSI.COM (David Chapman) (06/08/89)

In article <8777@fluke.COM> strong@tc.fluke.COM (Norm Strong) writes:
>Room air conditioners carry an energy efficiency rating.  It's a number
>ranging from around 6 to 10.

It's a measure of how much more cooling you get than power you get in (yes,
I know it sounds weird).  An EER of 10 says that for each watt of power put
into the compressor, 11 watts of heat dissipation go out the radiator.  Ten
watts of energy (heat) get sucked out of the room.  It's related to Carnot 
engines, which are really a mechanical engineering question, so I won't 
explain further.  E-mail me if you really care.
-- 
		David Chapman

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