A/C 101 - How Central Air Conditioning Units Work

Posted by Cooley on April 2nd, 2021

Can you imagine life without cooling? Sweltering heat waves that can melt the rubber on your shoes, cook an egg on the dashboard of your vehicle, and make it almost difficult to have a great night's rest-- sounds miserable!

Let's face it, life without A/C would not be the same. Did you understand, that prior to the 20th century, ice was really collected for refrigeration? It was cut into 1-ton blocks, delivered throughout the country and utilized in 'ice-boxes' to keep food fresh. Fortunately today, refrigeration has actually been significantly enhanced because its introduction in 1834.

By knowing how your house's A/C system works, you'll have the ability to make it run much better and longer, and if it must break throughout the canine days of summertime, more positive finding a replacement.

What is Central Air?

Given that the 1960s, central air systems have been the most common design of cooling in America.

Best characterized by the condenser unit outdoors and ducts carrying cool air throughout the house, a central air is often described as a "split-system" since the indoor and outside parts are separated.

How It Works

Similar to how a sponge absorbs 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 easy to understand how an ac system works when you see how the parts operate together.

Parts of an A/c System

Divide into two parts; a system will consist of an outdoor condenser system (below) and a coil housed on top of the heater or inside air handler. The outside condenser, which does many of the work, operates 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 level has actually increased above the setpoint. It signals 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) Filthy air going into the cabinet first goes through an air filter that traps dirt and air conditioning service edmonton particles.

3) The tidy air then goes through the evaporator coil. Utilizing metal fins to increase its surface area, the evaporator coil extracts heat and moisture from the warm air as the air passes through it. The clean, cool air is flowed throughout the house.

4) A pair of copper tubes containing refrigerant, called a Line Set, connect the indoor coil with the outdoor condenser.

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

HEATING AND COOLING Cheat Sheet

It's a good concept to acquaint yourself with the technical language used by HEATING AND COOLING experts to comprehend your system when it concerns making repairs or purchasing a new unit.

HEATING AND COOLING - Means heating, ventilation, and cooling. This acronym is utilized to categorize all equipment utilized to control air temperature, humidity, and air quality.

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

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

Ton - A measurement that describes the cooling capacity your system can provide under typical conditions. 1 Load amounts to roughly 12,000 BTU's. Lots are typically used when sizing an unit for your house, which can be determined based on the square video required to be cooled or warmed.

Unrivaled Competence

Easily, the furnace, a/c, and electrical systems all work automatically, without us requiring to fumble around in the basement or worse, a hot attic. Until something goes incorrect.

Finding out about your a/c system might appear overwhelming at initially, but once you have the fundamentals down, you'll be able to comprehend not only how your system works, however likewise analyze jargon to make buying a replacement simple.