How Air Conditioners Work

Many people use air conditioners whether at home or in their offices. But most people do not know how air conditioners work. The air conditioners are basically similar to a refrigerator. The main difference is the fact that refrigerator is used for cooling only a small area while an air conditioner is used for cooling a larger area.

The air conditioners basically use the chemical that is used in the refrigerator to remove the heat from the air and hence replace the heat with cool air.

In understanding how air conditioners work, there are three main important concepts. As we all know, heat moves from warm to cold and also the boiling point of the refrigerant chemical changes with respect to the change in pressure.

This also means that if the pressure is higher when the boiling point is higher. Conversely, if the pressure is low then the boiling point is also low. Then the refrigerant chemical will boil and then take in the heat from the environment that is surrounding it when its outside temperature is greater than that of the chemical.

In other cases if the surroundings of the environment are cooler than the refrigerant chemical then the process of condensation will take place and thus the chemical will condense and thereby becomes a liquid substance and thus will lose the heat.

The air conditioners work in the form of a cycle. It begins with the process of compression of the refrigerant which causes it to heat up and thus become a pressurized gas. The gas is then sent through coils to disperse the hotness of the air and then it changes the chemical into a liquid substance.

The chemical then goes in to a evaporator coil where it again gets converted in to cold vapor.

The heat of the air is thus absorbed and the air that is cooled is spread throughout the room or the building. The whole process is repeated again and again, this is how air conditioners work.