What Are The Parts of an Air Conditioner?
If you’re about to buy a new cooling system, or even if you’re a homeowner that just wants to know more about them, having a better understanding of the parts of air conditioner units and how they work is a great place to start. Once you know the parts of an air conditioner and how they work can also help you identify performance problems when they arise. Redman Services shares the main parts of an AC unit and explains how they work to cool your home.
Main Parts of Air Conditioner Units
Before we talk about how the system works, let us first introduce you to the parts of air conditioners. This information will help you understand the critical components of your cooling system. The main components include:
- Evaporator coil: The evaporator coil sits within the indoor furnace or air handler. This component removes heat from the indoor air.
- Compressor: The compressor pressurizes the refrigerant. It sits within the outdoor unit.
- Condenser coil: The condenser coil is located inside the outdoor unit. Its job is to release heat from the refrigerant.
- Condenser fan: The condenser fan in the outdoor unit keeps air moving over the condenser coils.
- Expansion valve: The expansion valve regulates the flow of refrigerant between the evaporator and condenser coils.
- Blower: The blower is within the indoor unit. It circulates cooled air through ducts and into the home’s living areas.
How Air Conditioners Work
Now that you have an understanding of the parts of central air conditioning systems, you’ll be able to recognize the different components and the roles they play in the cooling process. Air conditioners actually work by extracting the heat from a space and transferring it outside of the dwelling. They don’t chill the air somehow, or generate cool air, which is a common misconception.
As warm air circulates through the indoor unit and passes over the evaporator coil where the air cools down. The evaporator coils contain liquid refrigerant that absorbs the heat within the air to lower air temperature. This process causes the refrigerant to warm up and convert into a gaseous form. The refrigerant gas travels through the refrigerant lines toward the compressor in the outdoor unit.
The refrigerant gas is compressed as it enters the condenser. Compression of the gas raises its temperature, decreases its volume, and places it under pressure. The refrigerant then leaves the compressor.
Refrigerant reaches the condenser coils in gas form. The condenser fan continuously blows outdoor air over the condenser coils to assist in the heat released by the refrigerant. The refrigerant lets off the heat and the outside air absorbs it. During this process, the refrigerant cools down, transforming it from a gas back into a liquid.
The refrigerant then travels through the refrigerant lines back to the indoor parts of air conditioning system. It passes through the expansion valve, which regulates the flow of refrigerant into the evaporator coil. The cool liquid refrigerant then moves into the evaporator coil once again, cooling the coils and beginning the cooling cycle once more.
Call Redman Services For Answers to Your Air Conditioning Questions
We hope this explanation of the parts of air conditioner units and how they work will help you better understand the air conditioning process. If you have any questions or suspect there are parts of air conditioner units not working correctly, call Redman Services right away for air conditioner installation and repair.