by Cooper Climate Control
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Understanding how air conditioners cool your home can help the homeowner quickly identify system problems before calling Cooper Climate Control Heating and Air Conditioning.
One of the benefits of knowing how your air conditioner works is that you can use the knowledge to describe problems to an HVAC technician when the A/C unit needs servicing. Many of us take for granted that our system will operate and keep us comfortable, and we are dumbfounded when it stops working. We don’t really know about the basic operation of the system. Whether you want to learn about your system to make maintenance and repairs easier, or you are just the curious type, you may find the information below helpful and interesting.
The evaporation of liquid is the basic principle on which cool air is created by air conditioning systems. In a loose interpretation of how the air is cooled in a home through the evaporation of liquid, consider how we are cooled off when water evaporates from our skin in the form of sweat during hot weather. This too is a cooling mechanism.
A/C units have three basic operating components – condensers, compressors, and evaporators. The evaporator is normally located inside the house while the condenser and compressor are located on the outside of the house.
A/C units evaporate liquid at an extremely cool temperature. During the process, the liquid changes into a gas as it evaporates and extracts heat from the surrounding air. At the same time, it evaporates into your house. The evaporator is partially comprised of metal fins that aid in the exchange of thermal energy from the surrounding air. Evaporation takes place in the coils, and they become extremely cold during the process. A fan blows air across the coils and the air, in turn, is transferred into the rooms of your house. This produces the cooling effect we experience.
The function of the compressor is to change the gas back into a liquid. The gas is “squeezed” by the compressor which becomes extremely hot during this process. As the evaporator fan circulates cool air throughout your home, the hot air in each room rises where a vent sucks it back into the A/C unit through what are called return ducts. The evaporator then uses that hot air to cool down the gas where it is blown throughout your home via other ducts.
What you are experiencing as your house is being cooled is a constant cycle of gas being turned into a liquid, then back into a gas once again. These actions repeat until the room temperature reaches the setting on your thermostat. Once the desired temperature is reached, the thermostat shuts the A/C off until the room warms up to a point where the temperature exceeds that setting again. Once again, the thermostat turns your A/C unit back to repeat the cycle.
If you want to understand how a heat pump or heating unit works, think in terms of reversing the positioning of the components of your air conditioning unit. In other words, the cold coils would be placed outside the home while the warm coils would be placed on the inside. Heat would then circulate throughout the house while the cold air inside is transferred to the outdoors.
