You are hereHome » Blogs » ckmapawatt's blog blogHow much electricity does my AC consume? I have an AC unit with the following specs: Cooling Capacity: 1260 kcal/h, 1.47kW, 5000 Btu/h Fan Motor Power: 0.034 kW My question is how much power does this unit actually consume in an hour? Does it use 1.47kW constantly? Btw it's a York unit. Is that a good brand? It will only draw that level of power when the compressor is running. In normal circumstances it will cycle on and off to chill the cooling element as needed; the rest of the time only the fan will be running to blow air over them. The amount of power consumed will vary depending primarily on how hot it is and what temperature you have the AC set to. To find out how much power it's actually using, you'll need to use a power meter of some sort. I'm partial to the Kill-a-Watt if they're available where you live. You do not have enough information to calculate the electrical power consumed during operation.

The three quantities listed, 1260 kcal/hr, 1.47 kW and 5000 BTU/hr, all represent the same power level, simply given in different units. They all give, as stated, the cooling capacity: the rate of heat energy removal from the cooled space. A particular air-conditioner has a dimensionless number called the Coefficient of Performance. It is defined as the ratio of Energy Removed to Energy Consumed. This value, usually around 4 to 8, divided into your cooling capacity (preferably in kW), will give the electrical power consumption of the unit when running... Another possibility: Turn off most of the appliances in your house, especially anything that cycles, like your refrigerator. Go to your electric meter and figure out how much power your house is using. The procedure for this varies between meters, but if you call your power company, they might be able to tell you how to do it. Turn on your A/C, let it run for a few minutes, and again figure out how much power your house is using.

Subtract one from the other to get the power consumption of your A/C. Add together the kW from Cooling Capacity and the Fan Motor. 1.47 + .034 = 1.504 kw or 1504 w. It appears that this is for a 220 v circuit ( 34w / .155A = 220v based on the fan rating). So your total draw would be 1504/220 = 6.84 A.Browse other questions tagged electrical hvac air-conditioning or ask your own question.Knowing the wattage of your AC unit allows you to find out the cost to run it. Air conditioner capacity is often described in British thermal units instead of amperage or wattage. To determine the cost to run a 5,000-Btu air conditioner, however, you'll have to know the amperage rating. In turn, you can convert that number to wattage. Once you know the wattage, you can find out the cost to run the air conditioner for an hour, a day, a week, a month or a year. Locate the amperage of your 5,000-Btu air conditioner. There will generally be a tag on the bottom or inside the filter panel with the specifications that you need.

Most 5,000-Btu air conditioning units are rated at around 5 amperes. Calculate the wattage from the amperes. For example, multiply the 5-amp figure by how many volts there are at the outlet. In most cases this will be 110. Therefore, 5 x 110 = 550 watts. This figure will allow you to calculate your kilowatt-hours. air conditioner unit size calculatorFind out what you are paying for each kilowatt-hour from your local electric company. window ac units with remote controlThe national average is approximately 12 cents. portable ac units for autosDetermine how much the air conditioner would cost to run over a 24-hour period. Use the basic formula of watts x hours of use ÷ 1,000 x cost per kilowatt-hour = cost of operation. (Dividing by 1,000 changes watt-hours to kilowatt-hours.)

For example, in this case the mathematical formula looks like this: 550 x 24 ÷ 1,000 x $0.12. The cost to run a 5-amp, 5,000-Btu air conditioner over a 24-hour period is about $1.60. Divide the cost per day by how many hours in a day to get an hourly cost amount. For example, $1.60 divided by 24. The answer shows that it will cost 6 cents to run every hour. Multiply the per day cost, $1.60, by seven days to get a weekly cost. In this instance it will cost $11.20 per week to run continuously. Multiply the weekly amount by how many weeks in a month (4) to get a monthly cost. In this case, the cost per month will be approximately $45. A yearly cost can be determined by multiplying the cost per week, $11.20, by how many weeks in a year, 52. The total approximate yearly amount to run a 5,000-Btu air conditioner continuously will be about $585. 1953 Chrysler Imperial with factory trunk mounted "Airtemp" system Automobile air conditioning (also called A/C) systems use air conditioning to cool the air in a vehicle.

A company in New York City in the United States first offered installation of air conditioning for cars in 1933. Most of their customers operated limousines and luxury cars. In 1939, Packard became the first automobile manufacturer to offer an air conditioning unit in its cars.[2] These were manufactured by Bishop and Babcock Co, of Cleveland, Ohio. The "Bishop and Babcock Weather Conditioner" also incorporated a heater. Cars ordered with the new "Weather Conditioner" were shipped from Packard's East Grand Boulevard facility to the B&B factory where the conversion was performed. Once complete, the car was shipped to a local dealer where the customer would take delivery. Packard fully warranted and supported this conversion, and marketed it well. However, it was not commercially successful for a number of reasons: The option was discontinued after 1941. The 1953 Chrysler Imperial was one of the first production cars in twelve years to offer modern automobile air conditioning as an option, following tentative experiments by Packard in 1940 and Cadillac in 1941.

[4] Walter Chrysler had seen to the invention of Airtemp air conditioning in the 1930s for the Chrysler Building, and had offered it on cars in 1941-42, and again in 1951-52. The Airtemp was more advanced than rival automobile air conditioners by 1953. It was operated by a single switch on the dashboard marked with low, medium, and high positions. As the highest capacity unit available at that time, the system was capable of quickly cooling the passenger compartment and also reducing humidity, dust, pollen, and tobacco smoke. The system drew in more outside air than contemporary systems; thus, reducing the staleness associated with automotive air conditioning at the time. Instead of plastic tubes mounted on the rear window package shelf as on GM cars, small ducts directed cool air toward the ceiling of the car where it filtered down around the passengers instead of blowing directly on them, a feature that modern cars have lost. Cadillac, Buick, and Oldsmobile added air conditioning as an option on some of their models in the 1953 model year.

[5] All of these Frigidaire systems used separate engine and trunk mounted components. Logo on a 1957 car with AMC factory installed air-conditioning system In 1954, the Nash Ambassador was the first American automobile to have a front-end, fully integrated heating, ventilating, and air-conditioning system.[9] The Nash-Kelvinator corporation used its experience in refrigeration to introduce the automobile industry's first compact and affordable, single-unit heating and air conditioning system optional for its Nash models.[10] This was the first mass market system with controls on the dash and an electric clutch.[11] This system was also compact and serviceable with all of its components installed under the hood or in the cowl area. Combining heating, cooling, and ventilating, the new air conditioning system for the Nash cars was called the "All-Weather Eye".[13] This followed the marketing name of "Weather Eye" for Nash's fresh-air automotive heating and ventilating system that was first used in 1938.

[12] With a single thermostatic control, the Nash passenger compartment air cooling option was "a good and remarkably inexpensive" system.[14] The system had cold air for passengers enter through dash-mounted vents.[15] Nash's exclusive "remarkable advance" was not only the "sophisticated" unified system, but also its $345 price that beat all other systems. Most competing systems used a separate heating system and an engine-mounted compressor, driven by the engine crankshaft via a belt, with an evaporator in the car's trunk to deliver cold air through the rear parcel shelf and overhead vents. General Motors made a front mounted air conditioning system optional in 1954 on Pontiacs with a straight-eight engine that added separate controls and air distribution. The alternative layout pioneered by Nash "became established practice and continues to form the basis of the modern and more sophisticated automatic climate control systems." Air-conditioning for automobiles came into wide use from the late twentieth century.

Although air conditioners use significant power; the drag of a car with closed windows is less than if the windows are open to cool the occupants. There has been much debate on the effect of air conditioning on the fuel efficiency of a vehicle. Factors such as wind resistance, aerodynamics and engine power and weight must be considered, to find the true difference between using the air conditioning system and not using it, when estimating the actual fuel mileage. Other factors can affect the engine, and an overall engine heat increase can affect the cooling system of the vehicle. The innovation was adopted quickly, and by 1960 about 20% of all cars in the U.S. had air-conditioning, with the percentage increasing to 80% in the warm areas of the Southwest.[18] American Motors made air conditioning standard equipment on all AMC Ambassadors starting with the 1968 model year, a first in the mass market, with a base price starting at $2,671.[20] By 1969, 54% of domestic automobiles were equipped with air conditioning, with the feature needed not only for passenger comfort, but also to increase the car's resale value.

A car cooler is an automobile window-mounted evaporative cooler, sometimes referred to as a swamp cooler.[23] It was an early type of automobile air conditioner[24] and is not used in modern cars. To cool the air it used latent heat (in other words, cooling by water evaporation).[25] Water inside the cooler evaporates and in the process transfers heat from the surrounding air. The cool moisture-laden air is directed to the inside of the car.[26] The lower the humidity, the better the system works. Because of the dry desert air, car coolers were popular in the southwestern United States states of California, Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, and Nevada. A simple stylized diagram of the refrigeration cycle: 1) condensing coil, 2) expansion valve, 3) evaporator coil, 4) compressor In the refrigeration cycle, heat is transported from the passenger compartment to the environment. A refrigerator is an example of such a system, as it transports the heat out of the interior and into its environment (i.e. the room).

Circulating refrigerant gas vapor enters the gas compressor in the engine bay and is compressed to a higher pressure, resulting in a higher temperature as well. The hot, compressed refrigerant vapor is now at a temperature and pressure at which it can be condensed and is routed through a condenser, usually in front of the car's radiator. Here the refrigerant is cooled by air flowing across the condenser coils and condensed into a liquid. Thus, the circulating refrigerant rejects heat from the system and the heat is carried away by the air. The condensed and pressurized liquid refrigerant is next routed through a thermal expansion valve where it undergoes an abrupt reduction in pressure. That pressure reduction results in flash evaporation of a part of the liquid refrigerant, lowering its temperature. The cold refrigerant is then routed through the evaporator coil in the passenger compartment. The air (which is to be cooled) blows across the evaporator, causing the liquid part of the cold refrigerant mixture to evaporate as well, further lowering the temperature.