How Room Air Conditioners Work

Did you know that one of the most important jobs a room air conditioner does is to remove the humidity from the air? We have all been to a hotel room that feels cold and clammy. That's because to keep customers from complaining that the room is too warm, room air conditioners in hotels are often oversized. When you have an oversized air conditioner in a room or a window, the air conditioner does not run long enough to lower the humidity in the air to a comfortable level. The control senses the room temperature without taking into account the humidity in the air and cycles the air conditioner off. When that happens too soon the result is an uncomfortable environment.

All air conditioners work the same way. They use a refrigerant circulated by a compressor into the evaporator to absorb heat as a fan motor passes air from the room across the coils. Once this heat is absorbed the compressor now forces that refrigerant into the condenser and a fan forces outside air across it removing the heat from the refrigerant. Once the heat has been removed from the refrigerant, the compressor forces it back through the evaporator to start over.

How Does an Air Conditioner Remove Humidity