ACs are still considered luxury appliances. Many people are still scared of buying one because they feel it will shoot up their electricity bill.
Many people are confused about the Ideal Air Conditioner Temperature that will yield the maximum power savings, as a lot of AC power consumption depends on the temperature you set.
Before we learn about the ideal temperature setting, we need to understand the basic working principle of an AC.
How Does An AC Work?
An AC needs a substance called refrigerant to cool your room or your refrigerator. It flows through different parts of your air conditioner and removes the heat.
The process of conditioning the air is a cycle. What that means is that the flow of refrigerant is continuous until you stop it.
There are four main processes involved in a refrigeration cycle.
- Evaporation
- Compression
- Condensation
- Expansion
Evaporation
During evaporation, the refrigerant absorbs the heat from the room. When it enters the evaporator, the refrigerant is in a liquid state. However, after absorbing the heat, it converts itself into a low-pressure gas.
Compression
After the evaporator, the refrigerant enters the compressor. When it does, it is gaseous. The temperature of the refrigerant is high, and the pressure is relatively low.
The compressor increases the pressure and temperature of the refrigerant by using a compressor motor. That motor can be a non-inverter motor or an Inverter motor.
Condensation
The high-pressure and high-temperature refrigerant gas then enters the condenser. You might have seen those black zigzag-shaped pipes at the back of the refrigerator. Right? Those are called condenser pipes.
In the condenser, the hot refrigerant gas dissipates heat into the atmosphere. Air conditioners use a fan to force condensation instead of natural air.
Therefore, it is preferable to keep the outdoor AC unit in an area where sufficient airflow is available.
Condenser pipes are usually made of aluminum or copper. Copper is the best material for cooling efficiency.
Expansion
Every air conditioner has an expansion tube that reduces the pressure of the liquid refrigerant coming out of the condenser.
The low-pressure, low-temperature refrigerant liquid enters the evaporation, and the cycles continue like that.
This cycle continues until the room temperature drops below your set level. A thermostat detects whether the temperature you set has been reached.
After that, the compressor is shut down for some time. Again, it starts when the temperature goes up.
This is how a refrigeration cycle works in both air conditioners and refrigerators. The only difference is that in the fridge, the cycle cools a small space, but it cools a room in the case of the air conditioner.
It is clear that a compressor plays a big role in an AC. Conventional single-speed compressors always run at full speed, whereas inverter compressors adjust the speed based on the load. Therefore, it is advised to buy an inverter AC for maximum power savings.
Ideal Air Conditioner Temperature
The human body can feel comfortable at 24°C, so ideally, you should keep the AC temperature at 24°C or below. However, that does not ensure maximum power savings.
AC power consumption purely depends on the work done by the AC compressor. When there is a high-temperature difference, the AC compressor will have to do more work and thus consume more power.
For example, if the outside temperature is 27°C and you keep the AC temperature at 24°C, the AC will consume much less power.
However, if the outside temperature is 50°C and you keep the AC temperature at 24°C, then it will consume a good amount of power.
There is no ideal air conditioner temperature. It all depends on the outside temperature. If the outside temperature is high, your AC will consume more power.
Many people feel that if they keep the thermostat setting too low, the AC will consume less power. This is a completely wrong concept, as the thermostat has nothing to do with AC power consumption. All it does is shut down the compressor when the desired temperature is reached.
