Hello! Would appreciate any basic explanation on how airconditioners work. Mine just got busted (and I’m from a very hot, tropical country!). I’m tempted to just call the maintenance guy, but I thought it would be a good opportunity to first learn about it before spending some dough. I’ll be using A/C units all my life anyway.
Been watching some YT videos but once terms like “latent heat vaporization” are mentioned, my mind just shuts off. Many thanks to all the articulate and patient folks out there!
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It’s a two step process: Compression and expansion of gas.
An air conditioner does not ‘cool’ air. It removes the heat from it.
When you compress a gas, it absorbs heat.
When you expand a gas, it releases heat.
So, the basics of the air-conditioner is to absorb the heat from the air in the house (return air) by compressing gas. This hot gas is then pumped outside the house where expansion releases the heat outside, cooling the gas again. The cool gas then returns to the house and is pump through an evaporator which is basically a fan blowing across coils containing the cold gas.
The air blowing across the coils transfers heat from the air to the gas. The resulting air feels cooler, and the gas is pumped outside again.
It just keeps looping around.
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