It’s so hot and I’m grateful to have them but how do they actually create the cold without ice or anything?
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Air conditioners and refrigerators work on the same basic setup. They work by absorbing heat from the inside of the room/home/refrigerator, and discharging it outside. Refrigerant is the medium or carrier of the heat.
On the inside of the home (or inside fridge) is an evaporator coil. It gets cold because cold refrigerant is flowing through the coil’s piping. As warm air from the home is blown across that evaporator coil, the cold refrigerant absorbs the heat that’s blowing across it.
The refrigerant, having absorbed heat, travels through a pipe to the outside condensing unit, where the heat is ultimately discharged through the condensing coil outside. The condensing coil for a refrigerator is usually attached to the back where you can’t see it.
The compressor acts as the pump that pushes the refrigerant through the system’s piping and coils.
This is the easiest explanation before you have to wrap your head around the physics of refrigerants and how they change phase between liquid and gas inside different sections of the system.
Many different chemicals — including water – can be used as a refrigerant. We use modern refrigerants like Freon because they have very low boiling points and can carry and transfer heat efficiently.
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