The temperatures are reaching record highs throughout the states and the majority of homes are utilizing some variety of air conditioner to beat the seasonal heat. Though we are all appreciative that your air conditioner works, the professionals at Premium Air Services LLC in Tomball wants to give you a glimpse at just how an AC system works.
The Basics
There’s a lot of science regarding keeping your living space cool. Your air conditioner runs in a parallel way to your refrigerator, of course your AC has a more difficult task to tackle. Both your fridge and AC cool with a constant loop of refrigerant, with your AC this refrigerant loops from inside to outside your home. This refrigerant easily changes from a liquid to gas and back to a liquid again. It enters your residence as a sub-cooled liquid and as it evaporates it soaks in heat from inside the home and turns back into vapor. This vapor then transfers back to the unit located outdoors where the heat is released and is then condensed back into a sub-cooled liquid.
Four Components
There are 4 central sections to your AC 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 found in the home, in your garage or even in your attic. Warm air moves throughout the cold evaporator coil and the heat is removed from the air. This cooled air is then transferred throughout the space inside your home.
Your compressor sits in your outdoor condensing unit. The super-heated vapor from your evaporator coil flows into the compressor which raises the pressure of the vapor until it is converted into hot, high pressure vapor. The hot vapor then goes back into the condenser coil where less hot outdoor air flows across the coil, heat is moved outdoors and the refrigerant is converted back into a sub-cooled liquid. The sub-cooled liquid then goes back to the indoor evaporator coil via an expansion valve or metering device. The process is then repeated.
That accomplishes your physics lesson of the day…your air conditioner functions on an relentless loop of science. We know that it’s not as top-priority to you how it works, but that you are staying cool. If you’d like to talk about staying cool and comfortable in Tomball give us a call at 713-364-9957. Thanks to science and our pros, you’ll get through this hot summer.