Air conditioners are something that many of us use without even thinking about it. They make life more convenient in many ways. You can keep an entire home or building cool just by turning on your air conditioner. All you have to do is set the thermostat. Your unit will automatically turn on and off when necessary.
However, there is a lot more involved in cooling a home than most people realize. There are also many parts that work together in order to ensure that cool air is delivered to your home. If one of these parts is not working correctly, then the entire air conditioning system may fail.
Air conditioners and refrigerators work in similar ways. However, a refrigerator only cools a small space inside of a refrigerator. The air conditioner cools the entire home, room or business. Air conditioners use chemicals that can easily be converted from gas to liquid. These chemicals are used to transfer heat from the home to the outside.
There are three main parts of an air conditioner, the evaporator, condenser and compressor. You can typically find the compressor and condenser on the outside part of the air conditioner. The evaporator can be found on the inside. It may be a part of the furnace. The furnace is the part that heats your home.
The fluid is delivered to compressor as a low-pressure, cool gas. The fluid will be squeezed by the compressor. The molecules of the fluid are packed together. Packing the molecules closer together raises the temperature and energy.
When the fluid leaves the compressor, it is a high pressure, hot gas. It then flows into the condenser. When you look at the outside part of your air conditioner, you will need to look for the part that has metal fins around that. This part acts as a radiator. It helps the heat dissipate, or go away, completely.
The temperature of the fluid is cooler when the fluid leaves the compressor. It has also changed from a gas to a liquid state. The liquid is delivered to the evaporator in a small hole. The pressure of the liquid also drops. This causes the liquid to evaporate into a gas.
As the fluid changes from a liquid to a gas, it starts to extract the surrounding heat. The heat separates the molecules in the fluid as it changes from a liquid to a gas. The evaporator’s metal fins also help with the heat exchange. The fluid is once again a low pressure, coil gas when it leaves the evaporator. It goes to the condenser, and the cycle starts all over again.
A fan is connected to an evaporator. This fan blows across the evaporator fins and circulates air throughout the entire house. The hot air is not as heavy as the cold air. That is why hot air rises to the top of a room.
There is a vent located where the air goes into the air conditioner and ducts. The hot air helps cool the gas inside of the evaporator. Air is cooled as the heat starts to get removed from the air. The air is distributed throughout the house via the ducts. These ducts are typically located at the floor level.
This cycle will repeatedly continue until the desired temperature is reached in the room that one wants to cool. When the thermostat senses that the room has reached the optimal temperature, the air conditioner will shut off. The air conditioner will turn back on when the temperature inside of the room starts to increase. It will remain on until the room reaches the optimal temperature.