The weather is reaching record numbers throughout the country and most homes are utilizing some type of air conditioner to battle the seasonal heat. While we are all grateful that your air conditioner works, the team at AZ Air Conditioning and Heating in Los Angeles would like to inform you how it works.
The Basics
There’s a plethora of science behind keeping your house cool. Your air conditioner runs in a similar way to your refrigerator, however your AC has a larger responsibility to manage. Both your fridge and AC cool with a consistent loop of refrigerant, in your air conditioner this refrigerant loops from inside to to the external part of your home. This refrigerant effortlessly converts from a liquid to gas and back to a liquid again. It flows into your home as a sub-cooled liquid and as it evaporates it absorbs heat from the indoors and turns back into vapor. This vapor then moves back to the unit located outdoors where the heat is freed and is then condensed back into a sub-cooled liquid.
Four Components
There are 4 core components to your cooling system: a compressor, an evaporator coil, the condensing coil and an expansion valve.
The evaporator coil is where your refrigerant evaporates from a sub-cooled liquid into a super-heated vapor. This component can be located inside your home, in your garage or sometimes in your attic. Warm air passes through the cold evaporator coil and the heat is removed from the air. This cooled air is then sent throughout your indoor space.
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 changed 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 returns to the indoor evaporator coil by an expansion valve or metering device. The process is then repeated.
That accomplishes your physics lesson today…your air conditioner runs on an never-ending loop of science. We know that it’s not as crucial to you how it works, but that it’s working. If you’d like to chat about staying cool and comfortable in Los Angeles contact us at 800-296-5088. Thanks to science and our pros, you’ll get through this hot summer.