Air Conditioning 4.0

July 17, 1902 - the first modern electrical air conditioning unit invented by Willis Carrier began its operation in Buffalo, New York.

Interestingly human comfort was the last thing on inventor's mind...

Willis Haviland Carrier, a graduate mechanical engineer from Cornell University worked for the Buffalo Forge heating company in upstate New York. He was given the task to find a solution to a problem that plagued the printing press industry in humid conditions.

Paper was expanding or contracting in the variable humidity.

This messed up the way the color registers in four-color printing jobs and resulted in badly aligned, muddy illustrations.

The concept of operation of Carrier's machine still forms the basis of today's air conditioner... or humidity controller to be more precise.

Air was forced through a filter of a piston-driven compressor, where it was pumped over coils that were chilled using coolant. The cold air was then expelled into a closed space using a fan, cooling the room and thus stabilizing the humidity. A few years later... the piston power was replaced by centrifugal chiller, allowing much larger spaces to be cooled. Toxic ammonia that had been the original cooling agent was also replaced.... and the first modern electrical air conditioner was born ...

Air conditioning came home for the first time in 1917. The unit in the Minneapolis mansion of Charles Gates was approximately 7 feet high, 6 feet wide, 20 feet long and possibly never used because no one ever lived in the house!

Air Conditioner 1.0 - Fast forwarding to 1935... first practical through-the-wall air conditioning unit was introduced by Chrysler Motors...

Window air conditioners are mounted on an open window. The indoor air is cooled as a fan blows it over the evaporator coils. On the outdoor part the heat drawn from the indoor portion is dissipated into the environment as a second fan blows outside air over the condenser coils. A house or building may have several such units, allowing each room to be cooled separately.

First portable in-window air conditioner was introduced by General Electric in 1971; further innovating the air conditioning... for convenience and portability!

Air Conditioner 2.0 - Mid 1970s... Window air conditioners lose cool points as split air conditioners comes along.

The split air conditioner units consist of a condenser, coils, and a fan. Air gets drawn, passed over coils, and blasted through an opening. R-12, commonly known as Freon-12, is used as the refrigerant.

Heat Pump equipment is developed that allows cooling and heating cycle using the same machine that can be used to provide cooling during summer and heating during winter.

Microprocessor control systems are used in all areas of refrigeration and air conditioning due to the readily available semiconductor technology.

Montreal Protocol signed to protect the earth's ozone layer is signed in Montreal, Canada. The Protocol establishes international cooperation on the phase out of ozone depleting substances, including the chlorofluorocarbon(CFC) refrigerants used in HVAC equipment....

Air Conditioner 3.0 - Oil and Energy crisis of 1973 has forced everyone to focus on energy efficient machinery....air conditioners stand out among the most power hungry beasts....

Its 1981.... Engineers at Toshiba gave up summer holidays and worked naked in the heat, making prototypes and checking their performance of first DC inverter air conditioner. They wanted to reduce energy loss with a compressor that was controlled continuously, rather than having to adjust the room temperature with the on-off control. They determined that use of an inverter, or frequency converter, would satisfy the necessary requirements.

In coming years, Kyoto Protocol is signed to protect the earth's climate by reducing greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

In 2007, an US state issued a circular to restrict the temperature of air conditioning in public buildings to 26°C (78°F) or higher during summer and 20°C (68°F) and lower during winter. Sale of low efficiency air conditioning units are also outlawed.

The inverter technology is improved over the years.... and offers up-to 60% and more savings on electricity bill when compared with fixed speed (on/off control) air conditioners.

Even though the DC inverter technology gains fast traction, the air conditioner consumers at-large remain speculative on performance of DC inverter air conditioners..... even in 2017......

Air Conditioner 4.0 - Thursday, June 01, 2017; 4:25PM, Lahore, Pakistan.....

World's first cyber-physical smart DC inverter air conditioning system launched by Orient Electronics (www.orient.com.pk) comes online.

With the continuing power crisis in Pakistan, the air conditioning consumer market is 80% DC inverter and 20% Fixed Speed.

However a large pool of DC inverter users are still unable to reap the benefits of DC inverter air conditioners due to sub-optimal usage patterns and habits.

For instance, in this part of the world, usually, we set our air conditioners to 18 C temperature which is, in fact, neither achievable nor comfortable. So the air conditioners despite being DC inverter keeps running at full speed to achieve this impractical temperature. Consequently making your electricity bills to escalate.

MEVRIS platform (app.mevris.io), the cyber part of the smart air conditioner provides in-depth data visualization and analytics. This helps the consumer to understand the operation of DC inverter air conditioner as well as maximize its performance while achieving lower-than-before electricity cost!

Apart from analytics and data visualization, MEVRIS provides online control on the go and scheduling along with time-line of activities and events taking place on the smart air conditioner.

Work on machine learning for predictive maintenance, optimum usage advisory along with consumer behavior analytics is underway and would be the standard features starting 2018.

The author is a cyber-physical systems enthusiast and currently serves as VP of Engineering at BlueEast (www.blueeast.com) - a technology development company of Orient Group of Company.

BlueEast is the brains behind the world's first Smart DC inverter air conditioner with built-in energy meter. Read More...