The air conditioner being responsible for adding cool your air to your home is a common misconception, but what it actually does is draw the heat in the air away from it. Because the room has quite a bit less heat, the space feels significantly cooler to folks in the end. The air conditioner takes advantage of evaporation effects, much like a swab of alcohol makes a person’s skin feel cooler as the liquid evaporates. Today, we at Air Supply Heating and Air Conditioning would like to further elaborate on how a central air conditioner works.
Components of Air Conditioning System & Their Function
Found in every air conditioner, a chemical with a unique ability to change from a gas to a liquid in a short amount of time, is known as refrigerant. The refrigerant is pumped into the unit in addition to a small amount of lubricating oil for the compressor. The primary components of a standard air conditioner unit include a condenser, an expansion valve, a compressor and a thermostat. To circulate the conditioned air, the motorized fans do most the work while thin metal fins allow heat to dissipate quickly. It is generally the heaviest component in the unit being that the compressor must be durable enough to withstand a significant amount of pressure.
How Does a Central AC Work?
The process of cooling an area begins with the refrigerant entering the compressor, which is usually located at the bottom of the unit. Starting as a cool gas refrigerant from the compressor, the gas becomes a very hot gas under high pressure as the gas enters the compressor’s inner chamber. This hot gas goes through a series of condensing coils similarly to the car’s radiator dissipating heat from the engine coolant. It is far less cooler in the liquid form by the time the refrigerant reaches the end of these coils. In order for it be forced through the expansion valve, which is a very tiny opening, the liquid refrigerant is still under high pressure. While traveling through another set of coils since it evaporates at a much lower temperature than water, the refrigerant begins to evaporate. As the evaporation process occurs, the air contained in the room and all surrounding air removes the heat. The unit’s fan blows across metal fins placed over these coils, is where the cooling sensation comes from.Just after the liquid refrigerant has become a cold gas again and re-enters the compressor, the entire process begins again until a thermostat registers a specific temperature and shuts off the compressor. When the room warms up, the thermostat senses the added heat and the compressor kicks back on to create more of the hot pressurized gas. The compressor will shut off again at some point when the temperature of the room may equal the cooling power of the air conditioner.
Central Air Conditioning Troubleshooting, Diagnosis, Repair & More in Summerlin, North LV, Henderson, Enterprise, Paradise, Sunrise Manor, Spring Valley, Aliante, Anthem, Desert Shores, Eldorado, Green Valley Ranch, Inspirada, Mountain’s Edge, Peccole Ranch, Providence, Rhodes Ranch, Seven Hills, Silverado Ranch, The Lakes, Tuscany Village & Las Vegas Nevada
Air Supply Heating and Air Conditioning specialists can find the problem and get you back on the right path when your air conditioner is no longer keeping temperatures cool and comfortable or not doing it efficiently. Call us today for your HVAC system repairs, maintenance, and installation services!