Summer is here with record temps across the country, and with the vast majority of homes having some type of air conditioner, it’s the best way to beat the heat. As you are relaxing in your comfortably cool home or office, thankful that your air conditioner functions, let’s look at how a normal cooling system functions.
The Basics
Your air conditioner runs the similar to your refrigerator, but understandably instead of keeping a little space cool, it has to work to cool down your whole house. Both use a refrigerant that converts easily from liquid to gas, back to liquid again. In your air conditioner, the refrigerant is on a consistent circle from the outside to the inside of your home. It goes into the interior as a sub-cooled liquid that evaporates and collects or absorbs heat from the air in your home, expands back into vapor, then back to the outside condensing unit where it dissipates the heat and is switched back to a sub-cooled liquid.
The Components
Your AC system is created out of four key components: an evaporator coil, a compressor, a condensing coil, and an expansion valve or metering device.
The piece where your refrigerant evaporates from a sub-cooled liquid to a super-heated vapor is called the evaporator coil, which may be inside, in your attic, or located in the garage. As warm indoor air is blown over the cold evaporator coil, heat is detached from the air…and the cooled air is driven among your home.
From the evaporator coil, the now super-heated vapor refrigerant goes back to the compressor based in your outdoor condensing unit. The compressor enhances the pressure of the vapor until it changes into a hot, high pressure vapor. The now super-hot vapor enters the condenser coil where less hot air blows past the coil, removing heat to the outdoors, and returns the refrigerant to a sub-cooled liquid. The sub-cooled liquid refrigerant is returned to the indoor evaporator coil where, through an expansion valve or metering device, the process is replicated.
Your HVAC system is an endless loop of movement. We understand the important thing to you isn’t really how it works, but that it’s working the right way. If you’d like to think about the process or just about staying cool, give our professionals a call at 519-296-4437. We will work with you and the laws of physics to ensure you happy this season.