Quan Air

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What you should know about refrigerants when purchasing or repairing a Residential A/C System or Heat Pump

Mitsubishi Ductless Mini-split Systems.
Perfect for new additions, retro-fits, sunrooms or just extra cooling. Mr. Slim units are quiet and efficient and a perfect match for your home.
These units have been popular for many years in Europe and Asia and are fast becoming just as popular in San Antonio.

How has the new Stimulus bill affected the tax credits for energy efficient home improvements?

On February 17, 2009, President Obama signed a stimulus bill (The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009) that made some significant changes to the energy efficiency tax credits. The highlights are:

The tax credits that were previously effective for 2009, have been extended to 2010 as well.
The tax credit has been raised from 10% to 30%.
The tax credits that were for a specific dollar amount (ex $300 for a CAC), have been converted to 30% of the cost.
The maximum credit has been raised from $500 to $1500 for the two years (20092010). However, some improvements such as geothermal heat pumps, solar water heaters, and solar panels are not subject to the $1,500 maximum.
The $200 cap on windows has been removed.

Stick your hand in gasoline or alcohol and hold it up into the air. Your hand will begin to feel cold until all the liquid is gone. The reason is that, as the liquid vaporizes, it needs heat to cause the evaporation process. This heat is taken from your hand and so your hand feels cool. Now if you can capture all the vapors and turn it back into liquid to dip your hand in, then you would have a modern air conditioner to keep your hand forever cool. This is really how an air conditioner works in principle.

The liquid that vaporizes in an air conditioning unit is called the refrigerant. This liquid is allowed to evaporate in what is obviously called an evaporator. The evaporator is a set of metal coils that will now become cold because as the refrigerant vaporizes, it draws the heat from the metal that form the coils. Electric motor blows air over the cold evaporator coils producing the cool air that comes out from the unit. The refrigerant in gas form is now collected by a compressor which compresses the gas. This compression produces heat and the gas is now cooled in a condenser. As the heat is removed from the gas refrigerant, it condenses and becomes a liquid once again. The liquid then goes back to the
evaporator and the cycle is repeated with the compressor pumping the refrigerant around in this loop. Here are the major components in an air conditioner.

The compressor: This is a mechanical compressor driven by an electrical motor and usually both are enclosed in a sealed container. The compressor can be regarded as the heart of the air conditioner and is the major component responsible for the efficiency of the unit. It is also the most expensive component to repair.

The condenser: After the hot refrigerant leaves the compressor, it passes through the coils of the condenser. A fan blows over the coils to cool or remove the heat. With heat removed the hot gas cools into a liquid and is returned to the evaporator.

The expansion valve: This is located just before the evaporator. It is really just a nozzle that throttles the liquid refrigerant just like a water hose nozzle will create a spray. This helps to evaporate the refrigerant. Fan motors: These provide air flows over the evaporator and condenser coils. The cold air is circulated into the area to be cooled and the hot air is discharged outside. The thermostat: This device is a switch that turns the unit off or on by turning the compressor off or on. It senses the temperature and therefore controls the amount of cooling required by the room.

Window, through-the-wall and packaged units: These are all self contained units with all the major components located in one housing. Window units can usually be picked up from a hardware or appliance store and placed in a window opening. Power is generally taken from an ordinary convenience outlet at 120 volts or a 240 volt outlet that must be wired separately for larger units. The unit has to be sloped backward to allow condensate to drain away.

Through the wall units are seen at hotels and motels. The outside of the unit is usually flushed with the outside wall of the building with most of the unit protruding into the room.

Packaged units are usually larger units used for central air condition, cooling an entire building rather than just a single room. Openings are provided for the supply and return air. Ducts are connected to these openings to distribute the air to various areas and to bring back air from these areas. In this way the air is circulated and cooling is added continuously.

Simply put an air conditioning unit or air conditioner I s a system that has serveral parts including a compressor and various coils to take out hot air and moisture and replace it with cool air. This is of course the simplest way to explain it. There are many bells and whistles that can be added to an air conditiong system to do more things. For example adding the ability to heat and cool or having a programmable thermostat to have the air conditioning unit turn off and on at specific times or having better energy efficiency and the list goes on. It's kinda like a car in that you can get from a to b but how you get there and how much it cost will depend on the features you have on that car. Now when it comes to the air conditioning unit itself there are many types. There is the window unit air conditioner which like the name suggest fits in a window. This unit contains all the parts of an air conditioning system in a single box that can simply be plugged into a 110v outlet and start running immediately. Not very hard to get up and running. The cost of these varies and start from about $300 and up. Then we have the split systems which has an outside air conditioning unit and a seperate outside air conditioning unit. This needs to be installed by a licensed HVAC Technician like Quality and Value Ac in san Antonio tx. These guys have been in business for over 9 years and have lots of experience from the average house to
mansion and also commercial air conditioning experience. So you couldn't be in better hands. This split system has an outside condenser air conditioning unit which has the compressor which controls the flow of the Freon, the liquid gas that cools your home. The second part is the evaporator coil air conditioning unit which blows the cool air into your home. These two units are connected together using copper tubing. Now here is where the fun comes in, choosing the right size unit for your house or business. We will discuss this later on but this is very important because choosing a unit that is too small wont get the job done and will cause your unit to run all the time which will increase your electricity bill. Also choosing an air conditioning unit that is too big will cause your unit to shut off too quickly without removing most of the moisture in your home which can result in mole build up. So this is why an experienced technician is needed. The other thing too is how many rooms are you going to be cooling off. This calls for duct work. This is the insulated tubing that goes into your attick space and drops to each room connected by vents that allow cool air from the evaporator air conditioning unit to go into your home. These come in various sizes and depending on what size you choose will allow each specific room to either be tool cold or not cool enough or just right for the size room. This is another consideration that is needed by the qualified air conditioning tech that is installing your unit. Having a better understanding of how an air conditioning unit works will help in your research to find a good air conditioning repair or installer technician in san antonio tx.
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