If you attempt to purchase an air conditioning system, you will soon be confronted with a lot of varieties. Here is a rundown of what you will see and what they do.

The basic division between air conditioning system types is the cooling medium. One type uses refrigerant in a closed system. This is by far the most common and well known type of air conditioning. It produces the cool and dehumidified air that we are used to in homes and business. The other type of air conditioning is more accurately a cooling system. This is the cooling tower system used in industry and larger buildings. The cooling tower generally allows heated water to fall through a stream of air generated by large fans. The air stream removes the heat from the water. The water is then circulated through coils where it cools the ambient air of the building, removing heat and returning to the towers to complete the cycle.

The more common refrigerant units are divided into two main types. The first is the split system. In the split system, the condenser and compressor are located outside of the building and the evaporator inside. Split systems tend to be a bit more efficient mainly due to the proximity of the cooling evaporator coils to the air outlets. The circulating ambient air does not have as much distance to travel. The other type of system is called the packaged system. In a packaged system, all of the components are located together. They are often on the roof on larger buildings, or behind the building outside. In some homes they may be inside the house.

Another way of differentiating air conditioning systems is between room and central air conditioning. Room air conditioners are generally closed packaged systems that are designed to cool a single room. Most of them are mounted in the window, and as long as the room is kept sealed, with the doors and windows closed, they can be extremely efficient for cooling. The power demands of individual room cooling units will depend on their size and BTU capacity.

Central air conditioning uses one unit to heat the entire building. The rooms are connected with a series of ducts and individual openings or registers in each room. The central air condition unit can be either a split or packaged system. Usually the heating system shares the same duct work and registers as well as the fan and controls with the air conditioning system.

These are the basic types and divisions of air conditioners in use today. There are other portable types of room air conditioners. They generally pull in air from the room and pass it through some type of evaporator and ejects it back into the room directly. Heat pumps are often considered air conditioning, and even attic exhaust fans which increase circulation within a building tend to cool and condition the air inside. Increased environmental concerns have led to the development of various alternative air conditioning methods. Solar energy, and underground pipe systems are two of these alternative methods.

Quinton Williams is with AirConditioningRepairCompanies.com - your resource for air conditioning information.