Did you know that your air-conditioner in your home, and your refrigerator in the kitchen work in the same way? Rather than just cooling a small box containing food and drink, like the refrigerator
does, your A/C system keeps the whole house cool.
An air conditioning system consists of three main parts; the compressor, the condenser and the evaporator. The first two components are found on the outside of the property, whilst the latter, the evaporator, will be found inside the residence.
Although you don’t necessarily need to know how your air conditioning system works in order to use it proficiently, it is a good idea to have a basic knowledge of how it works and the major components, in case you ever need to speak to a HVAC (heating, ventilation & air conditioning) specialist about your system and therefore have the ability to converse with him/her without getting flummoxed.
So, here’s what the basic components, that we just mentioned, do when your air conditioning system is switched on and running: The job of the compressor is to take the refrigerant chemical and to turn if from a gas and turn it into a liquid.
By compressing the molecules of the chemical together it forces it to raise its temperature, and then leave the compressor as a hot, highly pressure gas. This then flows from the compressor into the condenser. When this highly pressured gas enders the condenser, the temperature is forced to cool down, and therefore turns from a gas into a liquid. The high pressure inside the condenser forces the liquid to leave the condenser and enter the evaporator, whereby the liquid’s pressure drops once more and again turns it into a gas again.
As the liquid changes back into a gas it will extract the hot air around around, thus cooling the environment. And, when all is done, the gas leaves the evaporator to return to the compressor so the cycle can begin once more. This cycle will then continue over and over again, until the room temperature, that you set on the control box, has been reached, and at which point the air conditioning system will switch itself over. The A/C system will continue to monitor the temperature of the room, and if it starts to rise, then it will automatically switch itself back on and begin the cooling cycle once more.
This of course is very simplified version of how your home air conditioning works, but if you watch the video above, it will give you a fuller understanding of how it all works.
The above information is simply a guide, and not meant to take the place of the advice of an experienced, and licensed HVAC specialist.
If you think that you’re having problems with your air conditioning system, you’re advised to speak to your local HVAC company to seek professional advice from them.