Know Your Way Around Your Household Air Conditioning System - It Pays To Know

All air conditioning systems work in the same basic way

, relying upon the principles of evaporation, condensation, compression and expansion, and consist of the same seven major components: the compressor, condenser, recover-drier, orifice tube or expansion valve, evaporator, hoses and of course refrigerant.

The refrigerant which is now HFC-134a (R-134a), boils at around-15.9F, which means it is typically a gas under standard atmospheric pressure. One of the basic principles upon which an A/C system operates is Latent Heat of Evaporation, which means that the refrigerant must be able to evaporate, so it must first become a liquid. If you're unfamiliar with the Latent Heat Principle, it's the same idea as how sweat helps regulate your body temperature on a hot day.

When you sweat, the moisture evaporates from your skin, absorbing heat in the process and creating a cooling sensation. With R-134a, to raise the boiling point high enough for the refrigerant to condense to a liquid at more realistic ambient temperatures, it must be highly pressurized.

The A / C system is a continual loop that's divided into a high pressure side and low pressure side by the compressor. The high pressure made by the pumping of the compressor pushes the now heated and pressurised gaseous refrigerant thru a hose into the condenser, where lots of the heat causes the refrigerant to condense into a liquid state. The still-highly-pressurized liquid then flows into the recover-drier, which has a filter to get rid of any waste in the system as well as desiccant material to get rid of any moisture or impurities from the refrigerant. ( Moisture mixed with refrigerant can form a corrosive acid )

The purified liquid refrigerant flows thru the A / C hoses and into the cabin of the automobile, where it is then forced through a little orifice, either in the shape of a fixed orifice tube or thermal expansion valve. The resulting fine mist that is metered by the valve ( think about a finger over the end of a hose ) blows into the evaporator found in the heater box under the dash. The drop in pressure due to the growth valve is enough to cause the refrigerant to vaporise as it moves into the evaporator, soaking up a fair deal of heat in the midst.

A fan found in the heater box blows background air across the now chilled evaporator, which soaks up heat from the air, and the ensuing cooled air blows thru the vents into the cabin. As the cooled air has less capacity to hold moisture, the evaporator also dehumidifies the air.

Condensation develops on the evaporator and the water drips away thru a drain in the evaporator box and causes the pools sometimes seen under cars with the A / C running.

Depending upon the system design, as the gaseous refrigerant is sucked back toward the compressor, there may also be an accumulator attached to the outlet of the evaporator that serves to ensure no liquid refrigerant or moisture makes its way to the compressor.

And that is about it when it comes to learning the way the A / C in your vehicle works.

Adam P Archer is writer and owner of Performance Means Everything and welcomes everybody to enjoy the site and watch it grow. If you want to discover more about Performance please visit the site.

by: Justin Tilly

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