Luckily in my life, they just work but there’s gotta be way more to it than gas/electricity make air hot, refrigerant/coolant make air cold. Also what is refrigerant/coolant?
Also I’m sure it can vary in application so I’m mainly asking about buildings/residences.
In: Technology
Have you ever noticed how a spray can goes super cold when you spray it? That’s because gas cools down when it expands. After a while, as the spray can soaks up heat from the room around it, it’ll warm back up to room temperature. Because you’re soaking heat from the room, the room goes colder overall. The same also works in reverse: If you compress a gas, it’ll warm up. Wait a while and it sheds heat and cools down to room temperature (but warms up the room as a consequence).
So, now, the trick is to set up a a machine that does both of these at the same time.
You pump gas into one room and let it expand, so it goes cold. You let it soak up heat from the room, that room cools down. Move the now warm gas to another room, and compress it so it warms up even further. Let it cool down, warming this room. Move it to the cold room, let it expand… and we complete the cycle. This is called a heat pump.
In a refrigerator, the “cold room” is the fridge itself and the “hot room” is your kitchen. In an AC, the cold room is your house and the the hot room is the outside world. You can also use a heat pump for heating: The outside is the cold room, and your house is the hot room.
Latest Answers