Air conditioning systems

• An air conditioner is a system that is used to cool down a space by

removing heat from the space and moving it to some outside area.

• The compressor pressurizes the refrigerant gas and sends the

refrigerant into the outdoor unit's condenser coil. A large fan pulls
outdoor air through the condenser coil, allowing the air to absorb
heating energy from the home and release it outside. During this
process, the refrigerant is converted back to a liquid.
• An air conditioner has 5 main parts:

• Refrigerant. Refrigerant (also known as coolant or by its brand name

Freon®) is a special fluid that is vital to cooling and freezing technology.
...

• Compressor. ...

• Condenser Coil. ...

• Expansion Valve. ...

• Evaporator Coil.
• Types of Air Conditioning Systems [video]

• Central Air Conditioning System. ...

• Portable Air Conditioner. ...

• Ductless Split System. ...

• Mini Split System. ...

• Packaged Units. ...

• Swamp Coolers (Evaporative Air Conditioners) ...

• Geothermal Air Conditioning. ...

• Variable Capacity Air Conditioners.

• There are obviously more than four parts that make up your air
conditioner, but so as not to overwhelm you, these are the four
critical ones you should know about: the evaporator, condenser,
compressor, and expansion valve. The evaporator is located in the cold
side of the air conditioner.
• The basic AC principle is a vapor compression cycle to minimize
the air temperature with the help of a condenser, compressor,
expansion valve, and evaporator. The complete cooling process is a
heat transfer taking place among the room air and refrigerant gas.
• heat is removed from one area and replaced with chilled dry air and

the hot air is expelled, normally to the outside atmosphere. As you can

see from this typical example of a air conditioning system, the ambient

air is drawn over the condensor that can best described as a ‘radiator’

as seen on motor vehicles but instead of water running through the

system it contains a refrigerant gas.

• Basic Operations

• An air conditioner is able to cool a building because it removes heat from

the indoor air and transfers it outdoors. A chemical refrigerant in the

system absorbs the unwanted heat and pumps it through a system of

piping to the outside coil. The fan, located in the outside unit, blows

outside air over the hot coil, transferring heat from the refrigerant to the

outdoor air.
• Most air conditioning systems have five mechanical components:

• • a compressor

• a condensor

• an evaporator coil

• blower

• a chemical refrigerant
• Evaporator

• An evaporator is basically a heat exchanger coil that is responsible for

collecting heat from the interior of a room by means of a refrigerating
gas. This component is called an evaporator and is where the liquid
refrigerant absorbs heat and evaporates into a gas
• The most common refrigerant gases used in air conditioning systems
include hydrofluorocarbons or HFCs such as R-410A,
chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs such as R-22 and hydrocarbons such as R-
290. This gas actually absorbs heat from the room and passes to the
next component for further processing
• Compressor

• As the name implies, the gaseous refrigerant is compressed here. It is

located in the outdoor unit, i.e. in the part that is installed outside the
house.

•
• Condenser

• The condenser absorbs the evaporated refrigerant from the

compressor, converts it back into a liquid and expels the heat to the
outside. Of course, it is also located on the outside unit of the split AC.
• Expansion valve

• The expansion valve, also known as a throttle device, is located

between the two coils, the cooling coils of the evaporator and the hot

coils of the condenser. It controls the amount of refrigerant moving

towards the evaporator.