 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | HVAC |
| Founded | 1883 |
| Founder | Ed Friedrich |
| Headquarters | 10001 Reunion Place San Antonio, Texas, U.S. |
Key people | Chuck Campbell, President |
Number of employees | 194 |
| Parent | Rheem |
| Website | friedrich |
Friedrich Air Conditioning is an American privately held company that manufactures commercial-grade room air conditioners and specialty cooling products for residential and light commercial applications. The company is based in Uptown, San Antonio, Texas.
The company was founded in 1883 by Ed Friedrich as a manufacturer of handcrafted furniture and other goods such as billiards tables, store fixtures, and other cabinetry. He later turned towards refrigeration and developed products to enhance food preservation.
After initially focusing on optimizing ice as a coolant, Friedrich looked toward mechanical refrigeration.
By 1950, the company was a large manufacturer of commercial refrigeration equipment. It entered the relatively new field of air conditioning in 1952 with its first window air conditioning units. The company is credited with several innovations, including introducing the first refrigerated display case for food retailers.
In 1971, the company moved its headquarters to the Pan Am Expressway on San Antonio's Near East Side, once part of Fort Sam Houston. The San Antonio, TX production plant was shuttered on November 16, 2007, bringing an end to U.S. manufactured Friedrich products. Beginning in 2008, the company moved the bulk of its production to Monterrey, Mexico; citing increasing U.S. production costs as well as an influx of low-cost brands, who employed overseas production, as reasons for doing so. [1] [2] However, all engineering and warehousing remains in San Antonio, TX. In 2010, the company moved its headquarters again to a building in Uptown San Antonio, to the immediate west of the city's airport. The company was acquired by Corinthian Capital in December 2012. It was then acquired by Monomoy Capital Partners, and once again acquired by Rheem in 2021. [3]
Friedrich is now focused on manufacturing room air conditioners. [4] Their products include window, thru-the-wall, portable and ductless air conditioners, as well as dehumidifiers. [5]
After nearly 40 years of continuous production, Friedrich replaced its long-running QuietMaster line with the professional-grade Kühl series in 2010. The Kühl series retains the former S/M/L chassis setups and much of the engineering of the QuietMaster series, however, it introduced an all-new design, Wi-Fi capability (initially via a separate controller, later models are integrated), and improved efficiency. "L" chassis models are advertised as heavy duty units. Furthermore, a version that features both heating and cooling capabilities is also available, which employs either a heat pump or electric strip heating depending on the unit's BTU rating. In 2012, the company introduced the Kühl Q as an addition to the Kühl series. The Kühl Q is a direct replacement for the former Q/K/X-Star and TwinTemp models; it still retains the professional-grade slide out "Q" chassis of the previous models but with a revamped design, similar to the design of the larger Kühl units. [6]
In 2012, the entry-level Uni-Fit (thru-the-wall units) and Chill (window units) lines of room air conditioners were introduced. The Uni-Fit and Chill were manufactured by LG and produced in China. However, both lines were revamped in 2019 and 2021, respectively, at which point TCL began to produce them. They are low-cost alternatives to the Kühl/Kühl Q and WallMaster series. Additionally, at the time of their 2019/2021 redesign, Wi-Fi capability, electric heating capability (on select versions), and QuietMaster technology began to be offered; with the Chill line having been rebranded to Chill Premier. [7]
For 2023, Friedrich introduced its first line of inverter room air conditioners, also manufactured by TCL, as an addition to the Chill Premier lineup. These new units only share a namesake with the existing Chill Premier line, as the design is all-new. Lastly, it also debuts Friedrich's Library Quiet technology, which according to Friedrich can be as silent as 42 dB. [8]
Source: [9]
Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. HVAC system design is a subdiscipline of mechanical engineering, based on the principles of thermodynamics, fluid mechanics, and heat transfer. "Refrigeration" is sometimes added to the field's abbreviation as HVAC&R or HVACR, or "ventilation" is dropped, as in HACR.
A dehumidifier is an air conditioning device which reduces and maintains the level of humidity in the air. This is done usually for health or thermal comfort reasons, or to eliminate musty odor and to prevent the growth of mildew by extracting water from the air. It can be used for household, commercial, or industrial applications. Large dehumidifiers are used in commercial buildings such as indoor ice rinks and swimming pools, as well as manufacturing plants or storage warehouses. Typical air conditioning systems combine dehumidification with cooling, by operating cooling coils below the dewpoint and draining away the water that condenses.
The coefficient of performance or COP of a heat pump, refrigerator or air conditioning system is a ratio of useful heating or cooling provided to work (energy) required. Higher COPs equate to higher efficiency, lower energy (power) consumption and thus lower operating costs. The COP is used in thermodynamics.
A chiller is a machine that removes heat from a liquid coolant via a vapor-compression, adsorption refrigeration, or absorption refrigeration cycles. This liquid can then be circulated through a heat exchanger to cool equipment, or another process stream. As a necessary by-product, refrigeration creates waste heat that must be exhausted to ambience, or for greater efficiency, recovered for heating purposes. Vapor compression chillers may use any of a number of different types of compressors. Most common today are the hermetic scroll, semi-hermetic screw, or centrifugal compressors. The condensing side of the chiller can be either air or water cooled. Even when liquid cooled, the chiller is often cooled by an induced or forced draft cooling tower. Absorption and adsorption chillers require a heat source to function.
A refrigerator, commonly fridge, is a commercial and home appliance consisting of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from its inside to its external environment so that its inside is cooled to a temperature below the room temperature. Refrigeration is an essential food storage technique around the world. The low temperature reduces the reproduction rate of bacteria, so the refrigerator lowers the rate of spoilage. A refrigerator maintains a temperature a few degrees above the freezing point of water. The optimal temperature range for perishable food storage is 3 to 5 °C. A freezer is a specialized refrigerator, or portion of a refrigerator, that maintains its contents’ temperature below the freezing point of water. The refrigerator replaced the icebox, which had been a common household appliance for almost a century and a half. The United States Food and Drug Administration recommends that the refrigerator be kept at or below 4 °C (40 °F) and that the freezer be regulated at −18 °C (0 °F).
In the United States, the efficiency of air conditioners is often rated by the seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) which is defined by the Air Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute, a trade association, in its 2008 standard AHRI 210/240, Performance Rating of Unitary Air-Conditioning and Air-Source Heat Pump Equipment. A similar standard is the European seasonal energy efficiency ratio (ESEER).
An icemaker, ice generator, or ice machine may refer to either a consumer device for making ice, found inside a home freezer; a stand-alone appliance for making ice, or an industrial machine for making ice on a large scale. The term "ice machine" usually refers to the stand-alone appliance.
Electric heating is a process in which electrical energy is converted directly to heat energy. Common applications include space heating, cooking, water heating and industrial processes. An electric heater is an electrical device that converts an electric current into heat. The heating element inside every electric heater is an electrical resistor, and works on the principle of Joule heating: an electric current passing through a resistor will convert that electrical energy into heat energy. Most modern electric heating devices use nichrome wire as the active element; the heating element, depicted on the right, uses nichrome wire supported by ceramic insulators.
Displacement ventilation (DV) is a room air distribution strategy where conditioned outdoor air is supplied at a low velocity from air supply diffusers located near floor level and extracted above the occupied zone, usually at ceiling height.
Solar air conditioning, or "solar-powered air conditioning", refers to any air conditioning (cooling) system that uses solar power.
Air conditioning, often abbreviated as A/C (US) or air con (UK), is the process of removing heat from an enclosed space to achieve a more comfortable interior temperature and in some cases also strictly controlling the humidity of internal air. Air conditioning can be achieved using a mechanical 'air conditioner' or by other methods, including passive cooling and ventilative cooling. Air conditioning is a member of a family of systems and techniques that provide heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC). Heat pumps are similar in many ways to air conditioners, but use a reversing valve to allow them both to heat and to cool an enclosed space.
Thermodynamic heat pump cycles or refrigeration cycles are the conceptual and mathematical models for heat pump, air conditioning and refrigeration systems. A heat pump is a mechanical system that transmits heat from one location at a certain temperature to another location at a higher temperature. Thus a heat pump may be thought of as a "heater" if the objective is to warm the heat sink, or a "refrigerator" or “cooler” if the objective is to cool the heat source. The operating principles in both cases are the same; energy is used to move heat from a colder place to a warmer place.
A packaged terminal air conditioner (PTAC) is a type of self-contained heating and air conditioning system intended to be mounted through a wall. The first practical semi-portable air conditioning unit invented by engineers at Chrysler Motors. It entered the market in 1935, and was designed to fit under a window like many modern PTACs.
Heating seasonal performance factor (HSPF) is a term used in the heating and cooling industry. HSPF is specifically used to measure the efficiency of air source heat pumps.
Free cooling is an economical method of using low external air temperatures to assist in chilling water, which can then be used for industrial processes, or air conditioning systems. The chilled water can either be used immediately or be stored for the short- or long-term. When outdoor temperatures are lower relative to indoor temperatures, this system utilizes the cool outdoor air as a free cooling source. In this manner, the system replaces the chiller in traditional air conditioning systems while achieving the same cooling result. Such systems can be made for single buildings or district cooling networks.
HVAC is a major sub discipline of mechanical engineering. The goal of HVAC design is to balance indoor environmental comfort with other factors such as installation cost, ease of maintenance, and energy efficiency. The discipline of HVAC includes a large number of specialized terms and acronyms, many of which are summarized in this glossary.
Ice storage air conditioning is the process of using ice for thermal energy storage. The process can reduce energy used for cooling during times of peak electrical demand. Alternative power sources such as solar can also use the technology to store energy for later use. This is practical because of water's large heat of fusion: one metric ton of water can store 334 megajoules (MJ) of energy, equivalent to 93 kWh.
Automotive air conditioning systems use air conditioning to cool the air in a vehicle.
The Glossary of Geothermal Heating and Cooling provides definitions of many terms used within the Geothermal heat pump industry. The terms in this glossary may be used by industry professionals, for education materials, and by the general public.
Airedale International Air Conditioning based in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England is a British manufacturer and worldwide distributor of cooling, heating and HVAC systems.
