The temperatures are reaching record figures across the country and many homes are utilizing some variety of air conditioner to combat the seasonal heat. Though we are all appreciative that your air conditioner works, the professionals at Anderson Heating & A/C in Carson City would like to teach you how it works.
The Basics
There’s a lot of science behind keeping your house cooler. Your air conditioner operates in a comparable way to your refrigerator, but your AC has a more difficult responsibility to manage. Both your fridge and AC cool with a consistent loop of refrigerant, with your AC this refrigerant loops from inside to to the external part of your home. This refrigerant easily alters from a liquid to gas and back to a liquid again. It enters your home as a sub-cooled liquid and as it evaporates it soaks in heat from your indoor air and turns back into vapor. This vapor then transfers back to the unit outside where the heat is let go and is then condensed back into a sub-cooled liquid.
Four Components
There are 4 central elements to your
air conditioner unit: a compressor, an evaporator coil, the condensing coil and an expansion valve.
The evaporator coil is the place your refrigerant evaporates from a sub-cooled liquid into a super-heated vapor. This component can be found inside your home, in your garage or sometimes in your attic. Warm air transports throughout the cold evaporator coil and the heat is taken from the air. This cooled air is then released throughout your home.
Your compressor resides in your outdoor condensing unit. The super-heated vapor from your evaporator coil goes into the compressor which surges the pressure of the vapor until it is transformed into hot, high pressure vapor. The hot vapor then moves back into the condenser coil where less hot outdoor air flows across the coil, heat is released outdoors and the refrigerant is converted back into a sub-cooled liquid. This sub-cooled liquid is then returned to the indoor evaporator coil through an expansion valve or metering device. The process is then repeated.
That completes your physics lesson today…your air conditioner runs on an endless loop of science. We understand that it’s not as crucial to you how it works, but just the fact it’s running. If you’d like to chat about staying cool and comfortable in Carson City contact us at 775-230-7628. You’ll be able to get through this hot weather thanks to science and the support from our experts.