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How Does Air Condition Works
How Does Air Condition Works
This is because sweats take the heat away from our skin as they evaporate.
When liquid evaporates and take heat away from the surroundings, it is called Latent Heat Of
Vaporization.
The bigger the Latent Heat Of Vaporization, the more heat it takes away.
The refrigerant will take away heat from its surroundings to evaporate.
If we enlarge the area of contact of the refrigerant to the air, the refrigerant will take away more heat.
air that lost heat becomes cooler and the a cool breeze comes out from the front.
The refrigerant used in an air conditioner tends to evaporate easily and have high Latent Heat Of
Vaporization which make it perfect for a cooling device.
Now, to understand how an air conditioner works, let’s follow the flow of a refrigerant.
A compressor circulates a refrigerant and compress it with high temperature and pressure.
A condenser serves to turn refrigerant in hot gas state into liquid form by taking away its heat.
The refrigerant passed through a condenser becomes liquid and flows into expansion valve.
There is a section in the expansion valve where the piping gets narrow and as the refrigerant passes
here, it splits up into many pieces.
What we see here is similar to the principle behind water being spread from spray.
As the pressure on the refrigerant drops, its temperature drops dramatically as well.
The refrigerant with lowered temperature then, goes into an evaporator to steal away heat.
Cooled refrigerant steals away the heat in the room and evaporates.
The compressor and condenser are built inside the outdoor unit of an air conditioner.
The evaporator and expansion valve are built within the indoor unit of an air conditioner,
Now, let’s dive deeper into the functions of each mechanical components of an air conditioner.
In the evaporator, refrigerant loses heat and is evaporated as gas into the compressor.
When a piston compresses the gas refrigerant, its pressure rises and so does its temperature.
You might have come across insect repellent spray or butane fuel canister whose surface of the can gets
cooler after use.
This is because the pressure inside the product has become lower.
If pressure is lowered, temperature is lowered and if pressure goes up, temperature also rises.
when gas with low pressure and temperature is pressed by piston, its pressure rises and so does its
temperature.
However, more air conditioners nowadays use scroll type of compressor rather than piston type.
In a scroll compressor, there are 2 scrolls of which one is fixed and the other rolls constantly.
As more air coming through the entrance gets inside the scroll, space becomes crowded.
As there is less space now, gas becomes more compressed and is discharged from the middle of the
scroll in a compressed state.
The reason for using such type of a compressor is the efficiency of space utilization.
This type of a compressor allows the machinery to become smaller in size and reduces noise as well as
vibration.
The temperature of refrigerant passed through the compressor is above 80 Celsius which is in a hot gas
state.
This refrigerant passes through a condenser and is cooled down slowly with chilled air from fans.
When the gas loses heat, its kinetic energy becomes weaker and it becomes liquid.
A refrigerant in gas state of high temperature loses heat as it passes through a condenser.
As such, it becomes condensed and at the exit, it turns into liquid almost.
Although the refrigerant has thrown off some of the heat as it passes through a condenser,
The refrigerant in high temperature and high pressure liquid flows into expansion valve.
The refrigerant which used to flow in large space now passes through narrow area and its pressure
drops as it goes.
Expansion valve are connected to sensible heat storage that detects heat.
Sensible heat storage is installed on the exit of an evaporator and detects temperature
Inside the storage is fluid sensitive to temperature changes and as the temperature at the exit of an
evaporator rises,
When the amount of refrigerant going into evaporator surges, cooling emission surges too.
gas pressure drops and the amount of refrigerant going into evaporator in turn,drops too.
Applying the above principle, an air conditioner controls the amount of refrigerant injected into an
evaporator to prevent over-cooling.
A refrigerant passes through the pipes of an evaporator and takes away heat in this process.
As the pan underneath starts to operate, warm air in the room is sent to an evaporator and cooled air is
emitted.
Fans used in the indoor unit of an air conditioner is shaped as cylinder rather than the more familiar
version of propeller.
As wall-mounted air conditioners can not take up large space, impeller type of fan is used instead of
propeller type.
When you leave a cold glass in the air, its surfaces is covered with water.
Pipes flowing with cold refrigerant are also covered with water drops on the surface.
The water here is stored in drain pan and when there is certain amount stored,
the water is discharged through the pipe and out to the world.