Passive cooling
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Passive cooling is a building design approach that focuses on heat gain control and heat dissipation in a building in order to improve the indoor thermal comfort with low or no energy consumption. This approach works either by preventing heat from entering the interior or by removing heat from the building.
A courtyard in Florence, Italy. It is tall and narrow, with a fountain spouting very thin streams of water at the bottom, and upper rooms opening onto it. Night flushing of the courtyard happens automatically as the night air cools; evaporative cooling cools it further and can be used to create drafts and change the air during the day. Windows can be left open around the clock.
A salasabil (currently dry) in the Red Fort in Delhi, India. A salasabil is designed to maximize evaporative cooling; the cooling, in turn, may be used to drive air circulation.
Air conditioning
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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 environment 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.
An array of air conditioner condenser units outside a commercial office building
Willis Carrier, who is credited with building the first modern electrical air conditioning unit
A wireless remote controller
The infrared transmitting LED on the remote