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ARI
The Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) is an organization which was created by HVAC manufacturers to verify the quality of units within the industry. ARI is a non-profit organization. It is made up of volunteers. It publishes its ratings standards and benchmarks for testing heating and cooling products.

CAPACITY
Usually capacity is measured in BTU's or tons. Capacity is the air conditioning or heating unit's effectiveness to cool or heat a measured space. A 20 ton air conditioning unit has twice the capacity of a 10-ton unit.

CFM
A CFM is a unit used to show the movement of volume of air in Cubic Feet per Minute(CFM). For example a 400 CFM are handle moves 400 cubic feet in a minute.

COMPRESSOR
A compressor is the device the reason for pumping the refrigerant through the refrigerant lines and the coil which makes the exchange of heat possible from indoors to outdoors.

CONDENSER
The condenser is the coil in charge of distributing heat to the outside air. It's function reverses whenever a heat pump is used.

COP
The Coefficient of Performance is a rating used to show a heat pump's capacity to effectively use electricity in its operation. The Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute is the agency that provides the Coefficient of Performance at 47 degrees Fahrenheit and 17 degrees Fahrenheit mainly because a heat pump works better at higher, outside-air temperatures.

dB
A db is the relative loudness of a sound, short for decibel. For example, the sound of a human voice talking is close to 70 dB. (See also SRN.)

DOE
The Department of Energy (DOE) is a federal agency that sets the standards for efficiency throughout the HVAC Industry. The DOE also monitors the usage of energy sources.

DUCT/DUCTWORK/DUCTING
This warm and cool air is then transferred to different registers in your home via special, flexible, large-diameter pipes or ducts or sometimes referred to as ducting or ductwork.

EER
Energy Efficiency Ratio is a ratio from the cooling capacity of the air conditioner in BTUs per hour in relation to the total electrical input in watts. This measure is discovered by evaluating test units to the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute specifications.

EFFICIENCY
Efficiency is a term used to describe how efficiently a heat pump, air conditioning system, or furnace is converting incoming energy to outgoing energy, the greater the number, the more effective the system. This helps lower operating costs.

EVAPORATOR COIL/EVAPORATOR
The Evaporator Coil is a crucial part of the indoor unit of a heat pump or air conditioning system. It's function bears it's name. When warm air passes over a coil filled with liquid refrigerant, the refrigerant evaporates and absorbs a lot of the heat. Then the gas refrigerant is pumped to the outdoor coil, where it then sends the heat it absorbed back into the outside air and returns to the liquid state.

HVAC
Heating, Ventilating and Air Conditioning. This term can be used to refer to the industry at large, specifically dealers of heating and air conditioning equipment.

INDOOR COILS
The indoor coil is the device in charge of transferring heat from indoors to the outdoors (and the reverse in the case of a heat pump in heating mode.

KILOWATT
A kilowatt (kW) is used to describe a unit such as 1,000 Watts. Observe that the "W" in "kW" is always shown capitalized because the Watt unit was named after a Scottish engineer named James Watt (1736-1819).

KWH
If a unit uses 1,000 Watts in a single hour, it is has an energy rating of 1kWh.

PACKAGE UNIT
A Package Unit is equipment where all the heating and cooling components can be found in one cabinet.

REFRIGERANT
The liquid that is used to soak up and transfer heat from one part of the air conditioner to another. Frequently it's called "FREON".

REFRIGERANT LINES
The copper lines that are used to transfer the refrigerant between the outdoor unit and the indoor unit.

SEER
Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating or SEER is the rating used to describe the effectiveness of an air conditioning unit, or heat pump in cooling mode. If the SEER number is higher then the unit is more efficient. The Department of Energy's minimum SEER number rating is 10.

SPLIT SYSTEM
A house comfort cooling system that utilizes both indoor and an outdoor components to supply clean comfortable air into a living environment.

THERMOSTAT
A device that is used to regulate the temperature of your house comfort systems to help maintain a comfortable temperature during the day and night within the house. Some of these are programmable thermostats that enable you to program different temperatures for different times during the day or night.

TON
The ton ratings really have absolutely nothing to do with the weight of the unit. A ton is simply 12,000 BTUs (see BTU definition on this page). A typical home cooling/heating system uses heat pumps or air conditioning units with capacities of between 1.5 and 5 tons.

WATT/WATTS
Electrical energy can also be expressed as "W" for Watts. For example, a 200W light bulb consumes 200Watts of electrical energy. The W in Watt is always uppercased, since it is named after a Scottish engineer named James Watt (1736-1819).

ZONE/ZONING
A house may be divided into several different zones or areas to improve control the actual temperatures in your home. The zoning process utilizes this method to divide you're your home into different areas.