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We primarily measure air volume in cubic feet per minute (CFM). Others measure conditions that can tell us a bit more about a system’s airflow. Some of these units directly measure the air volume moved over a period. We use a few different units for measuring airflow. When you attempt to reject that air, the house naturally pulls fresh air through open windows, cracks, and other openings. These efforts include using bathroom exhaust vents and exhaust hoods in the kitchen. In residential A/C units, fresh air intake may result from mechanical efforts to remove undesirable air from a space. Fresh air intake may refer to economizers or makeup air units in the commercial sphere. The final type, mechanical ventilation, refers to the fresh air intake.
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The return duct takes in warm, moist air and moves it to the air handler for conditioning and moisture removal. The supply duct brings conditioned air to the home by moving that air away from the air handler. The second type, supply/return airflow, refers to the flow of air entering and leaving the duct systems in the home. The A/C unit then compresses that refrigerant and sends it to the outdoor condenser, where a fan blows over the coils and rejects that heat from the refrigerant to the outdoors. The refrigerant inside the evaporator absorbs heat from inside your home as air blows over the coil. That heat exchange occurs in two components, each with fans that move air: the evaporator (indoor air handler) and condenser (outdoor unit). A/C units work because they exchange heat between the home, refrigerant (“Freon”), and outdoors. The first type, system airflow, refers to the immediate flow of air in the HVAC equipment. There are actually three types that we can measure: system, supply/return, and mechanical ventilation. 2 MEASUREMENTS: UNITS, TOOLS, AND METHODSįirst of all, we need to dispel the idea that “airflow” refers to one measurement or value.This article will only scratch the surface of airflow, how we measure it, and its effects on comfort. As such, we use a few different types of metrics and tools for measuring airflow. As technicians, we understand it to be a measure of an A/C system’s ability to function properly within a structure, and we approach the subject holistically. You can see that airflow is a deceptively tricky topic. Are we talking about the blower fan speed? How about the air volume exiting the supply duct and entering the conditioned spaces of the home? Where does the velocity of the air moving through the ducts come in?
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It sounds like a simple topic you measure how well air flows through your system.īut when you think about how an A/C system works and interacts with your home, airflow can get a bit complicated. We throw the term “airflow” around a lot in the A/C industry.
#AIRFLOW SYSTEMS BLUE AIR HANDLER FREE#
Bill has worked with Kalos President Bryan Orr to create free educational materials for technicians worldwide. Bill gave an excellent presentation on airflow to industry educators, and we draw on his work in this piece. We’d like to give special thanks to Bill Spohn with TruTech Tools for inspiring this article.
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