Cool the whole apartment with one air conditioner: a brilliant solution or unreasonable savings?

When summer comes and air temperature rises relentlessly, air conditioners become more popular and demanded than ever. Everyone wants to have an even and comfortable temperature in the apartment so as not to languish from the heat and feel good. But the desire to save money or the inability to install additional air conditioners in other rooms at a particular moment in time makes us ask unusual questions, in particular, is it possible and how to cool an entire apartment with one air conditioner?

The principle of operation of the air conditioner

Any conditioner works due to a liquid substance - freon, which is capable of either absorbing (during evaporation), or giving off heat (during condensation). The device provides a change in the state of aggregation due to pressure and temperature, which allows cooling the air. So, the refrigerant absorbs heat during evaporation in the heat exchanger of the indoor unit, and condenses it in the outdoor unit. The physics of the process is the transfer of heat from one medium to another (in the case of cooling, from the room to the street).

The main parameter to consider when choosing this technique is cooling capacity, or cooling capacity. This figure can be indicated both in kW and in special British thermal units (BTU, BTU). The dependence of power on the cooling area is simple - per 1 sq. Km. m. 1 kW (or 3412 BTU) is required. On air conditioners from different manufacturers, you can find two types of marking:

• BTU power index:
  • 05 is 5000 BTU per hour, which corresponds to 1.5 kW and serves an area of ​​15 sq. M .;
  • 07 - 7000 BTUs per hour, performance 2.1 kW for an area of ​​20 square meters. m .;
  • 09 - 9000 BTU per hour, 2.6 kW and 26 sq.m. etc.
• power in kW:
  • 20 - 2 kW, 20 sq.m .;
  • 25 - 2.5 kW and 25 sq.m;
  • 30 - 3 kW and 30 sq.m. etc.

The calculation of the power of the air conditioner is based on the area of ​​the room

Clearly limited power is the main problem, which does not allow cooling several rooms with one device at once. The air conditioner will qualitatively lower the temperature only in the area corresponding to its parameters.

Location of indoor unit for cooling several rooms

In an effort to save money or if it is impossible to install several external units, some try to arrange one powerful air conditioner so that it immediately cools 2 or 3 rooms. There are several common options:

• placing the air conditioner in the corridor, provided that it has access to all rooms where cooling is required;
  

  Often they put air conditioning in the corridor so that it cools several rooms at once

• placing the device opposite the door in adjacent rooms so that the air flow from one room immediately goes into another.
  

  Some install air conditioning in front of the door to adjacent rooms, so that one device cools several rooms at once

A similar arrangement is possible, but it’s worthwhile to understand that it will not be possible to achieve complete air cooling in several rooms at once. It's all about poor air exchange - even through an open door to another room no more than 10-15% of the cold will go out, which makes it impossible to create a uniform temperature in the apartment. In addition, such an arrangement of the air conditioner entails a number of disadvantages:

• When a device with a cooling capacity calculated on the entire area of ​​an apartment or several rooms is installed in one room, a too sharp temperature difference will form - in the room where the air conditioner is installed, it will be very cold, since its area is less than the potential of the equipment.
• The air conditioners are equipped with a thermostat, which stops the cooling process upon reaching the temperature indicated by the user. Thus, a powerful device will quickly cool the room and stop, not allowing to fully reduce the temperature in adjacent rooms.

Methods for cooling an air-conditioned apartment in one room

If the air conditioner is already installed in one of the rooms, but there is a need to lower the air temperature in others, then you can use one method - maximum cooling of one room. The air conditioner, designed for the area of ​​a particular room, must be turned on at the minimum temperature, then go out and close the door. When the split system stops (which means that the thermostat has determined a decrease in performance to set), all that remains is to open the doors to the adjacent room - the cold air will partially come out and cool the second room. This is not an ideal method, since it will be cold in the first room, but this can be done, for example, if the air conditioner is in the bedroom where no one is currently located, but there is a need to cool the room a little, from which the door to the room to be cooled opens.

There is another way - to create a directed air flow using a fan installed in a refrigerated room. But there will be similar problems: uneven cooling, overloading the air conditioner, not designed for a large area. In addition, another significant minus appears - excess noise.

Split and multisplit systems

For proper and complete cooling of several rooms there are only two options:

• install a split system corresponding to the area in each of the rooms where a reduction in air temperature is required;
• install a multisplit system - in it you can connect several indoor units to one powerful external unit.
  

  The multisplit system allows connecting several indoor units of an air conditioner to one external unit

It is not possible to connect another indoor unit to the external unit of a conventional air conditioner.

A big plus of the multi-split system is the ability to select the number of indoor units according to the number of rooms, each of which is calculated for a different area. This is the only convenient solution in situations where it is forbidden to install more than one external air conditioning unit on the facade of the building.

When buying a multi-split system, you can choose indoor units of different cooling capacities depending on the area of ​​the rooms

But there are also disadvantages, the main of which is cost.

The cooling of several rooms with one air conditioner is real, but imperfect. It is simply impossible to achieve a complete and, importantly, uniform decrease in temperature in this way.