I\'m need to understand the following: to keep the room at confortable temperatu

Question

I'm need to understand the following: to keep the room at confortable temperature (70 degree, for example), how does the amount of energy consumed by the AC grow as the outside air temperature rises in the summer over the same length of time (a day, say)? Is it more or less linear? quadratic? exponential? or anything else?

I posted the same question on another StackExchange site, but I figured that physicist may provide more help because it seems to me that it is related to both heat conduction and the working mechanism of AC.

Thanks.

Explanation / Answer

Without getting too complicated I'd say it's linear.

Two bodies in contact exchange heat at a rate that's proportional to the temperature difference between them. The rate of heat transfer in with an outside temperature of 80 degrees will be twice the rate at 75 degrees (assuming your 70-degree room temperature).

Your AC needs to pump this heat out as fast as it comes in to maintain 70 degrees, so it will need to do it twice as fast when it's 80 degrees outsite than when it's 75 degrees.

This is a linear relationship.

Related Questions

Navigate

• Browse (All)
• Browse I
• Subjects

Integrity-first tutoring: explanations and feedback only — we do not complete graded work. Learn more.