An air conditioning system consists of the equipment necessary to condition the air inside a home or business.  This equipment basically consists of a condenser, a compressor, an evaporator coil, a thermostat and an electric heater or gas furnace.  In an all electric home, an air handler would contain both the electric heater and the evaporator coil.  Homes that are supplied with natural gas typically are equipped with a gas furnace instead of an electric air handler, because gas heat is cheaper to produce and more comfortable to most people.  If your home has a gas furnace, the evaporator coil would be a separate piece of equipment which would be attached to the gas furnace.  Depending on what part of the country you live in, if your home is all electric, a heat pump should be considered.  Most residential homes are air conditioned with a split system.  Commercial businesses typically are heated and cooled with package units.

An air conditioner performs two functions when conditioning the air.  First it removes heat.  An air conditioner moves heat from inside your home and places the heat outside via the condenser coil.  The absence of heat is cold.  Heat is transferred by the means of a refrigerant which has the ability to easily change from a liquid to a gas and back to a liquid again.  The second function the air conditioner performs is the removal of moisture from the air.  It is important to remove moisture from the air because moisture holds heat and it also slows the bodies natural cooling abilities.  Moisture is removed from the air by the evaporator coil.  It does this in the same way water condenses on the side of a cold glass.  Because cold air cannot hold as much water as warm air, the cold air around the glass causes the moisture to condensate on the glass.  The air reaches its dew point and water vapor becomes condensation.  The same process is what causes condensation to form on the evaporator coil fins.  This water accumulates and is sent down a drain.

As for the workings of an air conditioner, gas refrigerant arrives to the compressor (located inside the condenser in a typical residential split system) where it is compressed into a hot gas.  As the gas refrigerant is compressed, the molecules move tighter together, causing the gas refrigerant to be hotter.  The refrigerant is then pumped by the compressor into the condenser coils where a fan draws air through the coils.  This disperses the heat from the refrigerant causing it to return to a liquid state.  The liquid refrigerant is then pumped toward the evaporator coil which is usually located in the attic or a closet.  The liquid refrigerant is then sprayed into the evaporator sometimes by a thermal expansion valve which meters the amount of refrigerant entering the coil.  A blower wheel acts as a fan to move air through the coils in the evaporator.  The air causes the refrigerant to boil which turns it back to a vapor or a gas.  This vapor carries the heat back to the compressor where the process starts all over again.

If your air conditioning equipment breaks down and it is older equipment, you might consider purchasing new equipment.  New air conditioning systems are much more efficient than equipment installed in the past.  Current systems are required to have at least a 13 SEER rating.  The higher the SEER rating the more efficient the equipment.  With rising utility costs, a payback analysis should be performed in determining whether new equipment is a viable option.

Learning About Your Residential Air Conditioner

Learining About Your Residential Air Conditioner