Many Belgian homes today are equipped with an air conditioner that runs at full speed especially during the summer months, logical we like to seek the coolness. An air conditioner then ensures a pleasant and comfortable indoor climate while the temperature outside rises. With winter approaching, most air conditioners are pushed into the forgotten corner waiting for the next summer. It can be done differently! In this article, we will discuss how efficient your air conditioner is in winter and answer all your questions!
We usually assume that an air conditioner is only useful for cooling a room, but nothing could be further from the truth. Modern air conditioners can control the temperature as desired, both in summer and winter. They work very efficiently on the principle of the heat pump. This heat pump simply reverses its function during the winter, thus heating rooms with warm air.
Using an air conditioner during the winter?
With energy costs skyrocketing, you're probably looking for an alternative that cools as well as heats without leaving a dent in your energy bills. That's where air-to-air heat pumps come in handy!
You can use the same unit, with the same energy-saving features, year-round to keep you cool in the summer and heat in the winter. In addition to a split air conditioner, there are many other types of heat pumps on the market.
The purpose of an air conditioner is to transfer heat from a warm environment (inside) to a cooler environment (outside). During the winter months, you want to transfer heat from outside to inside and the air conditioner should work in reverse.
For your air conditioner to do that, a small device known as a reversing valve is used in your air conditioner's outdoor unit, which allows it to turn on the heating mode. An air conditioner, after turning on the heating mode, will not begin to emit heat for several minutes. This is because the evaporator must warm up first to prevent cold air from being blown inside the room.
Frost protection during winter
Frost protection is a mode that protects your air conditioner from negative temperatures. A feature that can come in handy during our Belgian winters. It is possible to heat your home with an air conditioner down to outside temperatures of -15°C.
When the outdoor temperature is low and the relative humidity is high, ice may form on the outdoor unit. This reduces the heating capacity and the air conditioner will turn on automatic defrosting after a certain period of time. The air conditioner's heating function will then be turned off for about ten minutes. After the defrosting process, the heating function resumes automatically.
Measurability of air conditioning efficiency
When choosing an air conditioner, efficiency plays a very big role. How is efficiency defined and what metrics are reliable enough to measure efficiency?
The Coefficient Of Performance (COP) is a coefficient of performance that tells us how effective a heat pump or air conditioner is at transferring heat versus the amount of electrical energy it consumes. If you've ever wondered how much heat an air conditioner can transfer, given a specific amount of power, at a specific temperature, the COP score is an important consideration.
COP is usually used to describe a heat pump's heating performance, while EER (energy-efficient ratio) is used to describe its cooling efficiency.
COP tells us how much heat an air conditioner or heat pump emits relative to its electrical input power.
For example: A heat pump with a COP of 4:1, or 4, means that for every unit of electric input power put into the heat pump, it delivers 4 units of heat output power. In this case, that means for every 1,000 watts of electric input power delivered to the heat pump, the heat pump delivers 4,000 watts of heat to the house. So the higher the COP score, the more efficient the system is!
Air conditioning as a tool to reduce your heating costs?
You know the drill, well winter and the living room gets hard to warm up. This is because indoor humidity is sometimes too high. The lower the humidity of a room, the easier it is to heat.
Our air conditioners are all equipped with a dehumidification function. This allows you to easily maintain the humidity level of a room. The advantage of this is that it then costs much less energy and money to maintain the temperature in the desired room.
Don't wait until summer to order your air conditioning installation!
As an air conditioning installer, we visit people every day who have actually wanted an air conditioner for a long time, but never did before. Usually, you don't think about an air conditioner until it gets very hot, such as when a heat wave rolls across the country and it gets way too hot in your home or office to work normally. At those times, of course, the phone at our place does not stand still and there are sometimes waiting times. Therefore, it is much wiser to ask for prices for an air conditioning installation already during the fall or winter.
