Air conditioning in buildings - two words of caution.

Two specific areas are addressed: (1) The necessity for effective estimates of infiltration rates in buildings; and (2) The dependence of vapor compression air conditioning systems on refrigerant charge. It is shown that the estimate of air infiltration rates through simple tests such as "blower-tests" are not applicable. In addition, there may be measurable drops in the capacity of air conditioning systems (on the order of up to 10%) for noni significant variations in the refrigerant charge from the optimum value.