Your air conditioner has supplied you respite from the warmth on scorching summer season days. However have you ever ever puzzled how an air conditioner works?
Air conditioners depend on a couple of bodily processes to chill your house. However your air conditioner doesn’t really produce chilly air – it removes warmth from your house.
Over the past 30 years, I’ve labored with air conditioners from each potential angle – from set up to service to gross sales. I do know the mechanical steps of the house cooling cycle just like the again of my hand. And since every Fireplace & Ice service technician and installer is required to finish over 200 hours of coaching, they do too.
However why is that this necessary to a home-owner?
When you realize extra about how your air conditioner works, you profit in a couple of methods:
- In case your system breaks down, you’ll be able to higher perceive why and the way it occurs.
- You’ll have the ability to select HVAC companions who observe finest practices for installations and upkeep.
On this article, we’ll go over how air conditioners cool your house and extra. By the tip, you’ll know the main components and elements of an air conditioner in addition to the house cooling cycle. We’ll additionally go over a couple of different components that may have an effect on your air conditioner’s efficiency.
So let’s get began.
Components of an Air Conditioner
Earlier than we dive into the mechanics behind how air conditioners work, let’s talk about the components that assist cool your house.
1. Refrigerant
Refrigerant is the substance that’s answerable for cooling your house. Refrigerant can simply swap from a liquid to a gasoline (and vice versa). This potential powers the house cooling cycle (which we’ll talk about later on this article).
2. Compressor & Compressor Fan
Your system’s compressor is situated in your outside unit. The compressor is answerable for turning refrigerant right into a liquid.
Your system’s compressor fan helps exhaust warmth absorbed from your house. That is the fan inside your outside unit.
3. Condenser Coil
Your system’s condenser coil is situated in your outside unit. The condenser coil works with the compressor to show refrigerant right into a liquid.
4. Metering System & Evaporator Coil
Your system’s metering system controls how rapidly refrigerant strikes into the evaporator coil. This permits the refrigerant to evaporate contained in the evaporator coil.
Your system’s metering system and evaporator coil are situated inside your house.
When you have a furnace, you’ll seemingly discover your evaporator coil on prime of your furnace. When you have an air handler, your evaporator coil is probably going situated inside your air handler’s cupboard.
5. Liquid Line
Your air conditioner’s liquid line is copper tubing that connects your indoor and outside items. When refrigerant is in liquid kind, it travels by way of the liquid line out of your outside unit to your indoor unit.
6. Suction Line
Your air conditioner’s suction line can also be copper tubing that connects your indoor and outside items. When refrigerant is in gasoline kind, it travels by way of the suction line out of your indoor unit to your outside unit.
7. Condensate Drainage
Your air conditioner helps take away moisture from the air inside your house. The condensate drainage helps drain this moisture out of your evaporator coil.
8. Blower Motor
Your system’s blower motor controls air circulation inside your house. This helps distribute conditioned air all through your house.
Each your heating and cooling programs depend on your blower motor to maneuver air all through your house. In truth, your blower motor is situated inside your furnace or air handler. This is likely one of the causes your air conditioner should be appropriate together with your furnace or air handler.
The Residence Cooling Cycle
The house cooling cycle begins when temperatures inside your house rise. Then your thermostat alerts your air conditioner.
In a liquid state, refrigerant travels by way of the liquid line to the metering system and evaporator coil in your inside unit.
From right here, your air conditioner depends on the identical approach that your physique makes use of to chill down: evaporation.
Your metering system and evaporator coil change the refrigerant to a gasoline. When it evaporates, the refrigerant absorbs warmth from your house.
Similar to your physique makes use of the evaporation of sweat to chill down, the evaporator coil cools down when the refrigerant evaporates. The blower motor pushes air over the evaporator coil, which cools the air. The conditioned air is distributed all through your house by way of your ductwork.
Then, the refrigerant travels by way of the suction line to the compressor and condenser coil in your outside unit. The compressor and condenser coil change the refrigerant again to a liquid.
When it condenses right into a liquid, the refrigerant releases the warmth that it absorbed from your house. The compressor fan exhausts this warmth into the environment.
Then the refrigerant cycles again to the metering system and evaporator coil inside.
Elements that Have an effect on Your Air Conditioner’s Efficiency
Outdoors of the house cooling cycle, there are different components that have an effect on your air conditioner’s efficiency.
These components embrace:
- Your air conditioner’s capability
- Your air conditioner’s effectivity
- Different HVAC tools
Your Air Conditioner’s Capability
With a view to adequately cool your house, your air conditioner should be the appropriate capability in your residence. In HVAC, we incessantly check with the capability of your air conditioner as its “measurement.”
In case your air conditioner is simply too massive or too small in your residence, it may value you consolation and effectivity.
In case your air conditioner is simply too massive in your residence, it’ll kick on and off extra incessantly than it ought to because it struggles to not over-cool your house. This could improve the quantity of power your air conditioner consumes.
In multi-story properties, kicking on and off, or brief biking, additionally means your higher flooring received’t obtain the identical stage of cooling. This additionally implies that your system received’t have the ability to correctly take away humidity from your house.
In case your air conditioner is simply too small in your residence, it’ll run greater than it ought to because it makes an attempt to chill your house to the set temperature.
In each instances, incorrect sizing will increase the quantity of wear and tear and tear in your air conditioner. This could lower the life expectancy of your air conditioner by as a lot as 5-10 years.
With a view to decide the dimensions of your air conditioner, your HVAC accomplice should carry out a load calculation.
Load calculations account for components that might create challenges in your air conditioner.
These components can embrace:
- The whole sq. footage your air conditioner should cool
- The quantity, measurement and situation of your house’s home windows and doorways
- The path your home windows face
- The sq. footage of your partitions, ceilings and flooring
- How lately your house was insulated
In case your HVAC accomplice doesn’t carry out a load calculation, your air conditioner’s efficiency will undergo.
Your Air Conditioner’s Effectivity
Producers rating an air conditioner’s effectivity with a Seasonal Power Effectivity Ratio (SEER) score.
The U.S. Division of Power requires air conditioners to be a minimal of 13 SEER in northern states and 14 SEER in southern states.
Some air conditioners can rise up to twenty-eight SEER. However a excessive SEER score isn’t the whole lot.
HVAC contractors typically use SEER rankings to check power consumption and estimate financial savings. And whereas air conditioners with greater SEER rankings can prevent cash, in addition they value extra upfront.
In some instances, higher-SEER air conditioners pays for themselves over time. However the highest-SEER air conditioners could take longer to pay for themselves.
After all, air conditioners rated 20 SEER or greater also can supply essentially the most consolation. But when your major objective is to chop down on power prices, a 20 SEER air conditioner would be the most effective, however your house could not want it.
In the event you’re changing an older air conditioner, most newer fashions shall be extra environment friendly.
To be taught extra, take a look at this text on the components that make SEER score.
Different HVAC Tools
Your air conditioner works with different elements of your HVAC system. Due to this, your air conditioner should be appropriate with different components of your system, like your furnace and ductwork.
It’s straightforward to consider your furnace and air conditioner as fully separate programs. However with out your furnace, your air conditioner wouldn’t have the ability to cool your house in any respect.
Your system’s blower motor is situated in your furnace. As I discussed earlier, your blower motor circulates air all through your house. In case your air conditioner and furnace aren’t appropriate, you can lose consolation or effectivity.
It’s additionally necessary to guarantee that your ductwork is sized accurately. Sizing ductwork is just like sizing your system – and if ductwork is sized incorrectly, your total system’s efficiency can undergo.
Sometimes, an HVAC contractor could must replace your ductwork so it’s appropriate together with your system. Your HVAC accomplice ought to have the ability to assess whether or not your ductwork is the right measurement in your residence and system.
Subsequent Steps
As you proceed to discover the intricacies of air conditioners, listed here are a couple of articles we expect you might admire:
At Fireplace & Ice, we consider that householders could make the perfect selections for themselves and their properties after they have extra info. We commend you for taking that step.
In the event you reside in Central Ohio and also you’re trying to change your air conditioner, we’d love to assist!
We provide free in-home estimates, throughout which we take the time to study your consolation wants and preferences.
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