Understanding How an Air Conditioner Cools Your Home

Summer is still a few months away and you should take this as an opportunity to prepare yourself for the hot and sunny season. One of the best ways to cool down in your own home is by simply buying an indoor air conditioner. With this hefty household appliance, even the hottest days during summer will feel more like a breeze.

Simply put, an air conditioner is a system or machine that is tasked with treating the air in a certain area. It does so through a refrigeration cycle wherein the warm air is removed and it is replaced with cooler air. Air conditioners are useful not only in homes but also in offices, classrooms and other enclosed spaces, as it keeps people cool and free from the dangers of high temperatures.

While its function is very basic and straight to the point, there is a lot more to know with regards to exactly how an air conditioning unit works. As with most heavy pieces of machines, there is a clockwork of process and functions that are responsible for keeping the warm air out and the cold air in.

How Does It Work?

To begin, it is first vital to understand exactly what an air conditioning unit does. Basically, it uses chemicals that can convert gas to liquid and vice versa in rapid succession. Once the process is done, the chemicals move the heat from inside your home to the outside of your home, thus removing any warm air inside.

Every air conditioning unit made by the top HVAC companies has its own set of unique features and equipment. However, each unit should at least have three key parts which are the compressor, the condenser, and the evaporators. These are the parts that are responsible for what the machine does.

The cooling fluid or chemical inside the air conditioning unit will become a low-pressure gas once it hits the compressor. That part will then do its job of compressing the remaining gas and liquid together. As the liquid becomes more packed and condensed, it becomes warmer, and this is what will be used to cool down the room.

From the compressor, the resulting fluid will be moved to the condenser and will be separated to form a highly pressurized gas and a coolant fluid. That gas will exit the air conditioning unit and into the other side of the house via an opening in the back of the machine. The back is strategically designed to help promote the faster removal of heat.
Now that the heat from the room is moved outside of the air conditioning unit, the fluid from the condenser will become much cooler. At this time, the fluid will move out of the condenser and then into the evaporator through a small hole. During this process, the temperature of the fluid quickly drops and it begins transitioning from liquid to vapor.
The cooled gas will leave the air conditioning unit, thus cooling the room. This process will be repeated again and again, so it is vital for the three integral parts to be in tip-top shape all the time. To make sure that air conditioning units are safe and are able to produce clean air, they often ship with a built-in AC filter. The filter prevents any solid particles like dust from getting into your room. It also cleans your room of said foreign materials as it begins to extract the warm air. It’s important to keep filters as clean as possible at all times.

The process will repeat up until the room reaches a certain temperature. In modern units, the air conditioner is able to detect the change in temperature and will automatically shut off once it cools down to the desired temperature. If it becomes hot once again, the air conditioning unit will turn on, once again repeating its process.

Are Air Conditioning Units Worth It?

The short answer to this age-old question is, yes, air conditioning units are worth it. Aside from keeping the room cool, these machines also help clean the air you breathe. Perhaps their biggest selling point is that they can provide levels of coolness that cannot be achieved with traditional fans and other heat-regulating systems.

The summer season is fast approaching and before you know it, you’ll be sweating bullets once again. To avoid the complications brought about by dog days, you should definitely consider getting an air conditioner. It will be worth your money and if you take care of it, it can last you a lifetime.