Heating Ventilation Air Conditioning and Refrigeration– mouthful huh? We’ll just say HVAC. HVAC is most commonly referred to when describing the comfort of people. Whether it is a three bedroom, two bath, 1500 square foot home or a five story office building housing 1200 people, the common denominator is the people occupying it. Each person has their own comfort level and they differ greatly from one person to another. What one person feels as being too cold, the other may feel as being too warm. Regardless, the condition of the occupied space does have a dramatic effect on one’s comfort.
HVAC is the process of adding or removing heat, humidifying or dehumidifying, filtering and moving the air in your home. Sounds easy, right? Well a lot must be known to condition the space to a level that is both comfortable and safe for those inside. The cost to condition the air inside your home or a business is one of the biggest costs. It may be easy to lower the temperature when feeling warm but just lowering the space temperature a few degrees can be costly. Sometimes lowering the humidity and increasing air flow can have the same effect on how a person may feel without the cost of lowering the temperature. The same is also true in the heating season only in reverse.
Refrigeration is the “R” in HVAC/R. Refrigeration is commonly referred to as the preservation of perishable goods. Perishable goods can be meat, dairy, vegetables, flowers and more. Really anything that if not refrigerated would not be safe to consume or useable in a short period of time. The best example of refrigeration is the local grocery store. The number of units dedicated to keep goods from going bad are vast and the cost to do so is well, more vast. The display cases you see on the stores floor is only a small part of what is needed to keep the temperatures of your favorite ice cream or milk to a point that keeps it frozen until you get home or safe to consume later.
In a large mechanical room out of site from customers is the equipment that refrigerates the display cases. The equipment located in this mechanical room accounts for most of the cost to build the store. There are a number of high tech pieces of equipment that run 24 hours a day 7 days a week to keep perishable good from going bad.
Be it the system in your home that keeps you warm in the winter and cool in the summer or your favorite beverage cold, how important is the HVAC/R industry? Let me ask this question? Imagine life without it!
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