With the soaring temperature of summer these days, Air Conditioner is becoming a necessity rather than a luxury. We have been experiencing an ever-increasing degree of heat every summer due to global warming. Air Conditioners not only cool down your body temperature by chilling the room you are in but also circulate and filter the air. This filtering helps to eliminate pollutants and molds from the air. This is particularly important for persons who suffer from chronic illness like asthma and allergies by minimizing the irritants that trigger an attack. The filtering also helps in keeping the surroundings free from insects and flees.
Air conditioners are broadly categorized into two types
- Window AC
In window AC, the heat exchangers, motors, compressors, and the connecting pipes are all placed on the same base. It is comparatively cheaper with relatively easy installation and maintenance. Maximum capacity is of 2 Tons.
- Split AC
It consists of two separate units, one is the indoor unit, and the other one is the outdoor unit. The capacity of a split Ac is not restricted to 2 Tons. The efficiency of this type of AC is more than window AC. Although the installation of a spilt AC is a little difficult you can anytime call up an ac repair centre to fix it.
We all know how relaxing it feels to be inside an Air Conditioned room or car. However, have you ever wondered how an air conditioner works?
Let us know about the inside equipments of an AC that helps in beating the heat
- Refrigerant
Refrigerant or coolant is a special type of fluid that is very important in freezing and cooling technology. It carries the heat from inside of your room to the outside atmosphere, acting as a messenger. The coolant liquid moves through the copper coils and the cooling tubes that connect the inner unit of the Air Conditioner with the outside unit. During this process, the refrigerant absorbs heat from the air that is circulating inside the room subsequently changes its state from vapor to liquid. After it absorbs the heat from the room, the coolant travels to the outer unit pushing the heat to the outdoors. Once the temperature is dispersed to the outdoors, the coolant changes back to gaseous state once again and travels back to the indoor unit. After the refrigerant gets cooled down, a fan inside the indoor unit blows air over the cold coils, and the cold air gets circulated throughout the room. This cycle keeps on repeating in a loop until the AC is turned off.
- Compressor
The compressor pressurizes the refrigerant, and aids in raising its temperature. The combination of the three laws of gas, namely Boyle’s Law, Charles’ Law, and Gay-Lussac’s Law state that whenever pressure is increased temperature also increases. Therefore when the coolant is compressed or pressurized, it gets heated up. This is done by squeezing the gas molecules tightly together. The coolant gets heated up to increase its temperature higher than the atmospheric temperature. Since we know that heat flows from hot to the cold junction, that is why the compressor needs to increase its pressure and in turn increase the temperature. The compressor needs regular maintenance by a good ac repair center to perform its functions smoothly.
- Condenser Coil
The condenser coils are located in the outdoor unit. The compressor passes the highly pressurized and hot refrigerant to the condenser coils. As the condenser fan blows air over these coils, the heat is transferred from the coolant to the wind and is passed out to the atmosphere. As the refrigerant cools down, it liquidizes and passes on to the expansion valve which depressurizes the coolant.
- Expansion Valve
The refrigerant coming out of the compressor has lost a lot of its heat but is still too hot to be passed on directly to the evaporator coils. Now since decreasing the pressure of a liquid also lowers its temperature, the refrigerant is passed through a thermostatic valve called the expansion valve. This expansion valve or metering valve, as it is referred to sometimes, depressurizes the incoming coolant, thereby decreasing its temperature considerably, making it safe to pass on to the evaporator coils. It also controls the amount of refrigerant entering the evaporator.
- Evaporator Coil
The evaporator coils are actually where the indoor air transfers its heat and gets cooled. An indoor blower blows the room air into the evaporator coil which has liquid coolant running through it. The refrigerant absorbs the heat and thereby cools its surrounding air, which is blown back into the room. Once the coolant has absorbed a certain amount of heat, it passes on to the compressor to release this absorbed heat outside and comes back into the evaporator coils in it cooled state to start the process over again.
This way, an air conditioner gradually cools the room to your required temperature.
To keep your ac in working condition, it is essential to do proper maintenance regularly. You can search for ac repair online centres on Google. Nowadays, you have some websites and applications like Urban clap that helps in connecting clients with various agents that repair ac. You can also take the traditional route and call up your ac provider’s service centre number to send an ac member of the armed forces to your home. Now that you know about how ac works, you will feel a lot confident the next time someone comes to repair your ac.