You walk into a hot, muggy, languorous room. It’s so stuffy, you can’t even bear it! But then you pop on the A/C and within a few minutes, the room is as cool as ice. If anyone living centuries ago experienced this, they might chalk it up to magic. So, how does this even happen? How do air conditioners work? Here, you can discover the answer to this question, and more, as we breakdown how do air conditioners work!
What Air Conditioners Do
First, in order for air conditioners to work at all, they have to do four things:
- Control temperature
- Manage humidity
- Control air circulation and ventilation
- Cleanse the air
Therefore, in order to do these things, air conditioners work in a closed system. In other words, they have to be closed off from the outside. Thus, air conditioners are designed to restrict airflow from the outside so that they can control the temperature, humidity, and circulation in the building. This is what makes air conditioning possible.
What They’re Made Of
Second, let’s take a look at the key components of an air conditioner to understand how it works. For instance, a basic A/C unit consists of three parts:
- Compressor
- Condenser
- Evaporator
Now we can look at how these parts work together to cool air.
How They Do It
Third, if you want to know how do air conditioners work, you have to understand that it’s basically the cycle of taking a chemical called a refrigerant and turning it into a liquid, then a gas, then a liquid again. So, here’s a simply step-by-step breakdown of how this works:
- Initially, the refrigerant reaches the compressor as a low-pressure gas. The compressor squeezes so it becomes a high-pressure, hot gas.
- Next, this gas moves to the condenser. A fan pushes the hot air outside and the condenser cools everything down to turn the refrigerant back into a liquid.
- Then, as the refrigerant makes its way into the evaporator, it becomes a gas again, produces cool air, and this gets pushed into your home or office.
- Finally, this process makes the refrigerant turn back into a low-pressure gas. It returns to the compressor, and the process starts all over again.
If you’d like a more-detailed visual of this process, click here.
Stay Cool with Kinkaid!
Last, if you’d like more information on how do air conditioners work, or need one installed in your home or office, contact us at Kinkaid! We’ve offered superb service to customers for over a century. So give us a call today!