The central air conditioning plants or the systems are used when large buildings, hotels, theaters, airports, shopping malls etc are to be air conditioned completely. The window and split air conditioners are used for single rooms or small office spaces. If the whole building is to be cooled it is not economically viable to put window or split air conditioner in each and every room. Further, these small units cannot satisfactorily cool the large halls, auditoriums, receptions areas etc.
In the central air conditioning systems there is a plant room where large compressor, condenser, thermostatic expansion valve and the evaporator are kept in the large plant room. They perform all the functions as usual similar to a typical refrigeration system. However, all these parts are larger in size and have higher capacities. The compressor is of open reciprocating type with multiple cylinders and is cooled by the water just like the automobile engine. The compressor and the condenser are of shell and tube type. While in the small air conditioning system capillary is used as the expansion valve, in the central air conditioning systems thermostatic expansion valve is used.
The chilled is passed via the ducts to all the rooms, halls and other spaces that are to be air conditioned. Thus in all the rooms there is only the duct passing the chilled air and there are no individual cooling coils, and other parts of the refrigeration system in the rooms. What is we get in each room is the completely silent and highly effective air conditions system in the room. Further, the amount of chilled air that is needed in the room can be controlled by the openings depending on the total heat load inside the room.
The central air conditioning systems are highly sophisticated applications of the air conditioning systems and many a times they tend to be complicated. It is due to this reason that there are very few companies in the world that specialize in these systems. In the modern era of computerization a number of additional electronic utilities have been added to the central conditioning systems.
There are two types of central air conditioning plants or systems:
1)
Direct expansion or DX central air conditioning plant: In this system the huge compressor, and the condenser are housed in the plant room, while the expansion valve and the evaporator or the cooling coil and the air handling unit are housed in separate room. The cooling coil is fixed in the air handling unit, which also has large blower housed in it. The blower sucks the hot return air from the room via ducts and blows it over the cooling coil. The cooled air is then supplied through various ducts and into the spaces which are to be cooled. This type of system is useful for small buildings.
2)
Chilled water central air conditioning plant: This type of system is more useful for large buildings comprising of a number of floors. It has the plant room where all the important units like the compressor, condenser, throttling valve and the evaporator are housed. The evaporator is a shell and tube. On the tube side the Freon fluid passes at extremely low temperature, while on the shell side the brine solution is passed. After passing through the evaporator, the brine solution gets chilled and is pumped to the various air handling units installed at different floors of the building. The air handling units comprise the cooling coil through which the chilled brine flows, and the blower. The blower sucks hot return air from the room via ducts and blows it over the cooling coil. The cool air is then supplied to the space to be cooled through the ducts. The brine solution which has absorbed the room heat comes back to the evaporator, gets chilled and is again pumped back to the air handling unit.
To operate and maintain central air conditioning systems you need to have good operators, technicians and engineers. Proper preventative and breakdown maintenance of these plants is vital.