Air Condition System- An Overview

Simple explanation of how an air conditioning system works, with enough detail so that it isn’t simply magic. Aair conditioning or heat pump compressor which compresses low pressure refrigerant gas into a highpressure, high temperature gas. Usually the compressor is in the outdoor portion of an air conditioning or heat pump system. The compressor is basically a high pressure pump driven by an electric motor. The air conditioning compressor is usually packaged in the outdoor compressor unit illustrated packaged in the outdoor compressor unit. A condenser or condensing unit typically a condensing coil inwhich high temperature high pressure refrigerant gas flows, and over which a fan blows air to cool the refrigerant gas back to a liquid state transferring heat from the refrigerant gas to the air being blown by the fan. The condenser unit is basically a coil of finned tubing and a fan to blow air across the coil. Usually the condenser unit is in the outdoor portion of an air conditioning system, often packaged along with the compressor motor discussed above. A material device which dispenses liquid refrigerant into an evaporator coil. The metering device may be simply a thin section of tubing or it may be a bit more sophisticated thermostatic expansion valve which include a temperature sensing control that can open and shut the device against refrigerant flow. An evaporator coil or cooling coil is typically the cooling coil is a section of finned tubing into which liquid refrigerant is metered and permitted to evaporate from liquid to gasstate inside the coil. This state change of the refrigerant, from liquid to gas, absorbs heat, cooling the evaporator coil surface and thus cooling indoor air blow across the cooling coil. Usually coil is located inside the air handler. An air handler and blower unit which provides a fan to blow building air across the evaporator coil surface in order to condition the building airby cooling it. A duct system which distributes conditioned air from the air handler inthe occupied spaceand which takes air from the occupied space and returns it to the cooling system air handler. Heat pump systems use the same components we have described just above, with the addition of a reversing valve that in essence permits the system to run backwards in cold weather. So in air conditioning mode the heat pump is moving heat from inside the building to outdoors while in heating mode the heat pump is loving heat from outdoor air to the building interior, because the ability of a heat pump to extract heat from outdoor air diminishes at low outdoor air to the building interior, because the ability of a pump to extract heat from outdoor air diminishes at low outdoor temperatures, heat pump systems in northern climates also include a backup or auxiliary heating system. Since the failure of an air conditioner to turn on, loss of air conditioner cooling capacity, reduced air conditioning output temperatures, loss of cool air supply, or flow entirely can be due to a variety of problems with one or more components.