Taking a break from pure cooling principles, let’s check out a dual-capability solution. Reverse cycle air-conditioning systems offer their owners a best-of-both-worlds design advantage. They function according to the ever-familiar refrigeration process. Reverse cycle uses an outdoor-mounted fan and condenser coil, which absorbs outdoor heat and converts that energy into a cool interior discharge. They can also flip their coil functions, thus becoming efficient heat transporting devices. Simply put, this flip-flopping appliance type can heat or cool at the flip of a switch.

Single-Package Comfort Control 

Imagine the equipment as a residential appliance. In the summer months, it functions like any other air conditioning unit. The outdoor condenser coil, compressor and fan release warm air from a refrigerant fluid. Turning back to a liquid in the condenser coil, the equipment expansion valve removes pressure from the fluid so that it can absorb more interior heat. The laws of thermodynamics happily encourage the cycle. From low-pressure vapour to condensed liquid, and so on, the state changing process loops. Now, just by pressing a switch on the appliance control panel, the equipment flip-flops. The outside condenser coil becomes the evaporator and the inside evaporator coil becomes the condenser section. Instead of cooling the interior, the absorbed thermal energy is transported inside, straight to a chilly room.

Employed In Warmer Climates 

Because its heating functions rely on an already mild exterior environment, reverse cycle air conditioning systems have become popular in temperate areas. In Australia, for example, these efficient, all-in-one heating and cooling appliances are recognized as true energy saving champions. Of course, even though they’re not considered capable arctic weather heaters, reverse cycle units do pair up perfectly with gas or electric heating equipment. And they really do save energy in nations that enjoy warmer winters. Better yet, however, reverse cycle AC systems incorporate air filtering and dehumidifying features. Extremely efficient when it comes to their heating duties, they’re quiet, designed to accurately heat or cool small to moderately sized properties, and there are no open flames to worry about, because reverse cycle technology relocates heat. They don’t produce thermal energy.

Next time a kitchen representative talks to a cold room engineer, remember to bring up reverse cycle air conditioning. While a refrigeration unit purrs away in the freezer, a split-system reverse cycle appliance could be filtering and dehumidifying the catering staff. At a time when every dollar matters, especially in the cutthroat restaurant and catering sector, this all-in-one heating and cooling package could make all the difference in the world as it shrinks a business electricity bill and dehumidifies a steamy dining room.