Where does an air conditioner intake the heat from inside the room?

[mackminer]

Hi,
I have a conditioner in my server room but I have a curiosity regarding it - well more than a curiosity. I want to know how it's working.

My concept of a conditoner is that it blows cool air in that has been refrigerated and takes the hot air out of the room to refrigerate it. The cycle repeats so the air is always being recirculated rather than bringing in fresh air from outside.

When I put my hand up to the indoor unit I can feel the cool air being blown out but I can't understand where the hot air is being sucked out...

[edd]

There's an intake vent somewhere, just depends on your AC.

[DeathAndTaxes]

Well technically it is the same air.  The airconditioner simply move the heat in the air from inside the room to outside the room.  The air is still air from the room.

As the post above said it is a closed loop.  The hot air is being sucked into airconditioner via a vent.  Where and what it looks like depends on the unit.

[ovidiusoft]

Easy to understand: http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/how_it_works/air_conditioner.html

[monsterblitz]

Hi,
I have a conditioner in my server room but I have a curiosity regarding it - well more than a curiosity. I want to know how it's working.

My concept of a conditoner is that it blows cool air in that has been refrigerated and takes the hot air out of the room to refrigerate it. The cycle repeats so the air is always being recirculated rather than bringing in fresh air from outside.

When I put my hand up to the indoor unit I can feel the cool air being blown out but I can't understand where the hot air is being sucked out...

The air intake is usually much larger and likely has a filter.  For most window units it's the lower half of the front in which there is a door for access to the filter. 

And on another tangent, clogged filters reduce air flow which can cause the cooling fins to form ice.  This reduces airflow even more & could eventually completely freeze over.  The filter is there to keep the dust from blocking the cooling fins, which would lead to the same problem.