You know your air conditioning system keeps your home or business cool during the hot summer months, but have you ever wondered how it works? One interesting fact you might not know is that your Air Conditioner and your refrigerator work primarily the same way. The difference is your refrigerator cools a small, insulated space, and an air conditioner keeps your home, office, or commercial space at a comfortable temperature.
The entire process of making the air in your property a comfortable temperature is based on a very simple scientific principle, and the rest is achieved by mechanical means. An Air Conditioner Works as a heat exchanger. It takes in warm air in your room and passes it over a set of cooling coils and then blows it back to the room as cold air.
The AC unit has four key parts:
- Compressor
- Condenser coils
- Evaporator Coils
- Freon- Cooling agent
AC Compression and Condensation Cycle
The coolant (mixed with lubricating oil*) enters the compressor as a cold low-pressure gas where it is compressed. This compression increases the temperature and pressure of the coolant which converts it into a hot high-pressure gas.
This working fluid exits the compressor as a high-pressure, hot gas, and it moves to the condenser. The outside unit of an air conditioning system has metal fins all around the housing. These fins work like the radiator on a vehicle, and they help dissipate heat more quickly.
When the fluid leaves the condenser, it is much cooler. It’s also changed from a gas to liquid because of the high pressure. The fluid makes its way into the evaporator through a minuscule, narrow hole and when the liquid reaches the other side of this passage, its pressure drops. When this happens, the fluid begins to evaporate to gas.
As this occurs, the heat is extracted from the surrounding air. This heat is required to separate the molecules of the liquid into a gas. The metal fins on the evaporator also help exchange thermal energy with the surrounding air.
When the refrigerant leaves the evaporator, it is once again a low-pressure, chilled gas.
AC Expansion and Evaporation Cycle
This hot high-pressure liquid then passes through another set of thin coils called evaporator coils, where it gets evaporated into a low-pressure gas. As the liquid changes to gas and evaporates, it extracts heat from the surrounding warm air of your room. So the air coming in contact with these coils get cooled and is blown back to the room with the help of an evaporator fan.
The process starts all over when it goes back to the compressor. There is a fan that’s connected to the evaporator, and it circulates air around the inside of the property and across the fins of the evaporator.
The air conditioner sucks air into the ducts through a vent. This air is used to cool gas in the evaporator, and as the heat is removed from the air, it’s cooled. Ducts then blow air back into the house.
This process continues until the inside air of your home or business reaches the desired temperature. When the thermostat senses that the interior temperature is at the desired level, it shuts the air conditioner off. When the room heats up again, the thermostat turns the air conditioner back on until the preferred ambient temperature is achieved again.
Here at UrbanHands, we make sure to take utmost care when fixing your Air Conditioners. We have a team of certified professionals in this field
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