Eli5, Why the lowest (coldest) an Air Conditioner is able to set to, is 16 celcius?

Question

As the title says, why is that the case? (16 Celsius ~ 60 Fahrenheit)

I’ve read somewhere, that 16c is suppose to be the most efficient / comfortable?

Prob need an AC techie here, but I’ve experienced being in my car during summer & have to hit the “max” button on those really hot days, & it automatically goes straight to high fan setting + 16 celcius.

How come it doesn’t go futher? Like 12 or 10 Celsius?

& I’ve also experienced my home AC, where I’ve set it to 23 celcius, but a larger horsepower (4 or 5hp) & it’s freezing!

Thanks, for the insight 😊

In: Engineering

Answer 1

There is no technical reason, it is just a user experience decision that the manufacturer has decided. Their thought process is that nobody would want to run the AC when the temperature is that low compared to the average room temp. So what you must want is just the maximum AC power possible.