The temps are reaching record numbers throughout the country and most homes are utilizing some variety of air conditioner to battle the seasonal heat. Although we are all grateful that your air conditioner is functioning, the professionals at Northglenn Heating & Air Conditioning, Inc. in Northglenn would like to teach you how it works.
The Basics
There’s plenty of science regarding keeping your home at a comfortable temperature. Your air conditioner functions in a parallel way to your refrigerator, but your cooling system has a more difficult job to tackle. Both your fridge and AC cool with a consistent loop of refrigerant, in your air conditioner this refrigerant loops from inside to outside your home. This refrigerant easily converts from a liquid to gas and back to a liquid again. It flows into your residence as a sub-cooled liquid and as it evaporates it absorbs heat from inside the home and turns back into vapor. This vapor then moves back to your outdoor unit where the heat is released and is then condensed back into a sub-cooled liquid.
Four Components
There are 4 core elements to your cooling system: a compressor, an evaporator coil, the condensing coil and an expansion valve.
The evaporator coil is the location your refrigerant evaporates from a sub-cooled liquid into a super-heated vapor. This component can be located in the home, in your garage or sometimes in your attic. Warm air moves through the cold evaporator coil and the heat is removed from the air. This cooled air is then released throughout your home.
Your compressor is located in your outdoor condensing unit. The super-heated vapor from your evaporator coil flows into the compressor which increases the pressure of the vapor until it is converted into hot, high pressure vapor. The hot vapor then enters back into the condenser coil where less hot outdoor air runs across the coil, heat is pushed 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. This continues repeatedly throughout the process.
That completes your physics lesson of the day…your air conditioner operates on an never-ending loop of science. We understand that it’s not as top-priority to you how it works, but that it’s working. If you’d like to talk about staying cool and comfortable in Northglenn contact us at 303-452-4146. Thanks to science and our pros, you’ll get through this hot summer.