Air Conditioners – How They Work

Air conditioning units, although unique in their own way due to its variety, actually have the same working components. These working components include the condenser, evaporator coil, refrigerant, expansion valve, the compressor and other parts that make the unit as it is. All of these components all work together in order to transport the heat and moisture from inside of your homes towards the outside. This is how air conditioning units give us the right amount of coolness we ask for.

The inner workings and components of an air conditioning unit are frank and straight to the point. There are a lot of parts such as the heat exchange pipes, a refrigerant tank and an air conditioner damper that is actually pretty complicated and complex when you first take a look at it. However, if you take a good and closer look at it, it is actually not that complicated at all.

In many aspects, the parts of all thermodynamic systems are actually pretty similar and these parts are quite familiar to us. Air conditioner dampers act as valves that either allow or restrict the airflow with respect to the needs of the machine it operates on. The ones that have a function of transferring heat from one area to another are the heat exchange and heat sink. The refrigerant, on the other hand, is referred to as the carrier agent because it is responsible for carrying the heat. The motor is the one responsible for powering the mechanism. This includes the air intake and output pump.

Induction Motors

Most battery-driven devices rely on direct current, or DC, as a power supply, but for large appliances in a household, an alternating current, or AC, is commonly used. The differences between these two dictate the way that a motor works. In an AC motor, the constant flow and reversal of the current induce a magnetic field, which then causes a rotor to turn. This powers the motor itself and allows the device to run normally.

Advantages of Induction Motors

With the exception of the air conditioner damper motor controlling the airflow, an air conditioning unit’s motor essentially only has one moving part: the rotor. The rotor is virtually suspended on a magnetic field that powers its movement and makes no contact whatsoever with the rest of the parts of an AC unit. This makes induction motors run quietly, a popular feature of most newer air conditioning models.

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There are several types of air conditioning units. One of which is the window air conditioner. This type of air conditioner is also referred to as a unitary air conditioning system because all of its components are stored in one compact box.

It is a self-contained AC unit that is usually installed in a window or through a pre-made hole in the walls of a home or building. Heat is ejected out of its outdoor side and cool air is pushed inside through the vents in its indoor side. These units cam cool any space that it is installed in. From a single room to an entire floor, window air conditioners can cool them with respect to the capacity and size of the unit installed.

Portable Air Conditioners

This system is also a unitary air conditioning system. It is a mobile unit placed on the floor of a room. It discharges exhaust heat using a hose vent through a wall or window.

These units are a bit louder than other types and usually suited for room sizes under 500 square feet. These are actually meant for wherever it’s impossible to install a window unit. Like the window air conditioner, this system has all the components in one compact box.

Read full article at Canoga Park Heating and Air Conditioning.

Knowing the parts and types of air conditioning system may not give us a master’s degree or a prestigious award but it sure can help us when we want to communicate with HVAC technicians. It makes the conversation smoother and helps us detect which part of the air conditioning unit has a problem thus making it easier to explain to HVAC contractors and technicians.

This video tells you how air conditioners work. Check it out: