how does hvac air conditioning work

The most common central cooling system is a split system, which includes an outdoor cabinet containing a condenser coil and compressor, and an indoor evaporator coil, usually installed in conjunction with your or . The compressor pumps a chemical called refrigerant through the system. Once warm air inside your home blows across the indoor evaporator coil, its heat energy transfers to the refrigerant inside the coil. That transfer, in turn, “cools” the air. The refrigerant is pumped back to the compressor where the cycle begins again. by the refrigerant is moved outside your home while cooled air isMoisture that contributes to humidity is also condensed out of the air. Your cooling system is usually combined with your central heating system because they share the same ductwork for distributing conditioned air throughout your home. Central heating systems have a primary heating appliance, such as a furnace, typically located in your basement or garage.

consist of four main components: 1) burners that deliver and burn fuel, 2) heat exchangers, 3) a blower and 4) a flue that acts as an exhaust for gaseous by-products. Depending on your situation, region and needs, you can choose from heating systems running on either gas or oil as fuel, or a hybrid packaged system that can use both fuel types. Combustion gases are generated by the burners in your furnace and passed through a heat exchanger. Air from your home blows across the heat exchanger to be warmed. It is then blown through a system of ducts to distribute around your home. During warm seasons your heating system works with your central air conditioning. Air is cooled as it’s blown over your air conditioning unit’s cooling coil, often attached to the air circulating fan of the furnace, and then sent through the same air ducts throughout your home. Your local can help you decide which central cooling and heating system is right for you.

matched systems can be customized with cooling and heating units that match your situation and let you choose from a range of energy efficiency.No membership or credit card requiredGet StartedNo thanks, I'm not quite ready. How does My HVAC System Work?Why doesn't Angie's List rate attorneys?Landscaping: What do your neighbors do that drives you crazy?How much does it cost to be a member here?The short answer is $2000 to $4000 and up, depending upon the amount of prep, the number of coats, the amount of trim, and the paint used.People often ask us questions about their air conditioner, like what is Freon gas and how does air conditioning work? I usually respond with a story like recently my i-phone broke and I was forced to get a new one at the Apple store, but the photos and apps that I had would not load onto my new phone because they were taken using an outdated version – it occurred to me that there are a lot of things that I use on a daily basis and have absolutely no idea how they work.

Unfortunately, the intricacies of the I-Phone are way over my head – but I do know how air conditioning works, so I figured I could at least contribute something.
house ac unit cost So how do central air conditioning units work?
how to service ac window unitCentral HVAC units (What does HVAC mean?), and really any modern AC unit work by employing similar operating principles and components as your refrigerator.
do you need to cover your ac unitRefrigerators use energy to transfer heat from their interior to the outside and into your home, keeping their contents cool. Likewise, an air conditioner removes heat from your home and transfers it outside. How does your air conditioner do this? It does this through the use of two coils: the evaporator coil and the condenser coil.

Evaporator coils are located inside your home and use rapidly evaporating Freon to absorb heat from the surrounding air. This newly chilled air is then circulated through your house, thus cooling it. The now relatively hot Freon then travels outside your house to the condenser coil, where the compressor condenses the Freon, releasing it’s stored heat to the outside of your house, beginning the cycle again. It is this property of refrigerants that allows your air conditioner to work. More on Freon can be found in: What is Freon made of? If you have any desire to “nerd out,” then this paragraph is for you – otherwise, skip to the next paragraph. Until the 90’s, nearly all air conditioners worked by using chlorofluorocarbons (aka CFCs) as their primary refrigerant, but because it was later realized that these chemicals could cause damage to the Earth’s ozone layer, production of CFC’s stopped in the United States in 1995. Today, almost all air conditioning systems employ halogenated chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) as a refrigerant, but these too are being gradually phased out due to efficiency and environmental concerns, with all production and importing expected to stop by no later than 2030.

Importation and production of today’s main refrigerant for home air conditioners (known as Refrigerant HCFC-22, or “R-22”) began to be phased out in 2010 and is expected to stop entirely by 2020. An alternative known as R-410A (Puron) is widely considered to be more safe for the ozone layer and is becoming more and more common in the industry. However, the US Department of Energy expects R-22 to be available for many years to come as it is necessary to service older units. What does this have to do with answering the question, how does air conditioning work? Well think of it kind of like the world changing from steam power to gasoline – it’s a different chemical with different reactions, but exists to serve the same purpose. The change won’t happen overnight just as steam didn’t become obsolete overnight. For more information on new air conditioning technology that works without refrigerants, check out: DEVAP – The New Idea on How Air Conditioning Works.