Air Conditioning Efficiency

Air Conditioning units are operated by electricity as standard. Any input of energy into the system that will be used to maintain a set temperature, will require the energy rate from the air conditioner to increase. This increase has the effect that for each energy input the air conditioner has to remove it. In order for the air conditioner to do that the air conditioner must increase its consumption by the reverse of its efficiency. As an example, presume a closed system had a 100 watt light bulb activates, and the air conditioner has an efficiency of 200%, the air conditioner’s energy consumption will increase by 50 watts to compensate for this, thus making the 100W light bulb consume a total of 150 watts of energy.

Air conditioners typically operate at efficiencies of significantly greater than 100%, see the next blog.