Air Conditioning 101 - How Central Air Conditioning Units Work

Posted by Aquilino on April 2nd, 2021

Can you think of life without cooling? Sweltering heat waves that can melt the rubber on your shoes, cook an egg on the dashboard of your car, and make it nearly impossible to have an excellent night's rest-- sounds unpleasant!

Let's face it, life without A/C wouldn't be the very same. Did you know, that before the 20th century, ice was actually harvested for refrigeration? It was cut into 1-ton blocks, provided throughout the country and used in 'ice-boxes' to keep food fresh. Luckily today, refrigeration has actually been dramatically enhanced since its introduction in 1834.

By knowing how your home's A/C system works, you'll be able to make it run better and longer, and if it should break during the dog days of summer, more confident air conditioning installation edmonton finding a replacement.

What is Central Air Conditioning?

Since the 1960s, central air conditioning systems have been the most typical design of cooling in America.

Best identified by the condenser system outdoors and ducts carrying cool air throughout the house, a main air conditioning is sometimes described as a "split-system" due to the fact that the indoor and outside parts are separated.

How It Functions

Similar to how a sponge takes in water, central air conditioning conditioners soak up the heat from inside the house and eject it outside through a procedure called "the refrigeration cycle."

It's simple to understand how an air conditioning unit works when you see how the parts operate together.

Parts of a Cooling System

Divide into 2 parts; a system will contain an outdoor condenser unit (listed below) and a coil housed on top of the furnace or inside air handler. The outside condenser, which does many of the work, runs in tandem with the air handler/furnace that distributes the conditioned air into spaces of your house.

The Refrigeration Cycle

The cooling process begins when the thermostat discovers the interior temperature has risen above the setpoint. It signifies the control board in the air handler and goes into action.

1) The internal blower draws in the hot, moist indoor air from the return ducts into the air handler/furnace cabinet to be conditioned.

2) Dirty air entering the cabinet initially passes through an air filter that traps dirt and particles.

3) The tidy air then travels through the evaporator coil. Utilizing metal fins to increase its surface location, the evaporator coil extracts heat and moisture from the warm air as the air travels through it. The tidy, cool air is distributed throughout the home.

4) A set of copper tubes consisting of refrigerant, called a Line Set, link the indoor coil with the outside condenser.

5) The condenser dissipates the heat caught inside the line originating from the evaporator coil by cycling it through its coils where a fan on top presses air to speed up the procedure. The refrigerant is then compressed and travels back to the indoor evaporator coil, where the cooling procedure continues.

HVAC Cheat Sheet

It's a great concept to familiarize yourself with the technical language utilized by HVAC specialists to understand your system when it concerns making repairs or buying a brand-new system.

HVAC - Means heating, ventilation, and cooling. This acronym is utilized to classify all devices used to control air temperature level, humidity, and air quality.

Split-System - In referral to parts of the system running both inside your home and outdoors. In a split system, the condensing system is discovered outside.

BTU - British Thermal Systems - a measurement of just how much heat energy can be gotten rid of from the air in an hour.

Heap - A measurement that describes the cooling capacity your unit can offer under regular conditions. 1 Lot is equivalent to roughly 12,000 BTU's. Lots are frequently used when sizing an unit for your home, which can be determined based on the square video footage needed to be cooled or warmed.

Unmatched Expertise

Easily, the furnace, a/c, and electrical systems all work instantly, without us requiring to fumble around in the basement or even worse, a hot attic. Up until something fails.

Learning about your a/c system might appear overwhelming at initially, once you have the essentials down, you'll have the ability to comprehend not only how your system works, but also figure out lingo to make purchasing a replacement simple.