Why air conditioners work better in humid weathrt/climate.

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Now I know it has to do something with the condenser , but I don’t know what exactly happens in there.

In: Engineering

3 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

If I recall correctly, it’s not that they work better, it’s more that we feel noticeably better because air conditioners remove the humidity from the air.

Humidity makes it difficult to breath and a humid atmosphere contains more heat than a dry one. So a decrease in humidity leads to a decrease in overall heat content. And that is why air conditioners seem to work better in humid weather.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Air conditioners (or any heat pump really), work by compressing a gas, cooling the hot gas, then letting it expand (and therefore get colder).

the thing is that water is better at absorbing heat from a hot surface than air is.. (which is why air is used as an insulator, and water is used for cooling)..

The additional water vapour in the air, being blown over the radiator on the external part of your AC unit means that additional heat is being drawn out of the hot radiator.

it’s that simple really.

for reference, the specific heat capacity of air is 0.24 + 0.45H (BTU/lb F) or 1.005 + 1.82H kj/KG c where H is is the specific humidity in KG of water vapor per KG of dry air. ..

or to put it another way, dry air will absorb 1.005 kj of heat per degree Celcius temperature difference per KG of air, and 100% saturated air will absorb 1.82 kj of energy per degree Celsius temperature difference, per KG of air.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Air conditioners work harder in humid climate. Humid air has more water than dry air. Water has more thermal mass than air. Thus hot humid air requires more energy to cool, up to 21.1% more.