The 3 main components I will cover are the condenser, the evaporator and the line set. We will touch on other items but the function of these parts are the ones that most do not understand.
1. The line set is the easiest part to describe. These are the 2 copper tubes that carry refrigerant back and forth between the condenser and evaporator. The larger insulated tube is referred to as the "low side" or suction line. It carries refrigerant in its gaseous state through the evaporator and back to the condenser. The smaller uninsulated tube is referred to as the "high side" or liquid line as it carries refrigerant from the condenser to the evaporator in its liquid state.
2. Air conditioning evaporator is the indoor component that is located on the top of your furnace or air handler. As the liquid refrigerant enters the coil, it passes through a metering device of some type. In short, this device controls the amount of refrigerant that enters the coil where the tubing is now increased in diameter. This limitation of refrigerant and increased volume capacity causes a significant drop in pressure. Since pressure and temperature are greatly affected by each other, the drop in pressure causes the boiling point of the refrigerant to drop significantly as well as its temperature. Now the coil, compared to our home, is a cool 65 degrees (approximately) while the boiling point of the refrigerant is somewhere around 55 degrees. This means the liquid refrigerant has boiled off into a nice heat absorbing gas. As the warm air from our home passes over these coils, the heat is absorbed into the refrigerant and sucked back to the condenser. The humidity in this air then collects on the coil like a glass of ice water on a summer day. This condensation then runs down into the drain pan at the bottom of the coil and is discharged by the pipe attached to it.
3. The condenser is the outdoor unit that really powers the whole operation. As the gaseous refrigerant that now contains the heat it has absorbed from the home returns to the condenser, it passes through all those coils you see wrapped in fins and around the compressor. As the fan in the A/C pulls air across the coils, they are cooled. As the coils cool, the gaseous refrigerant begins to return to a more liquid-like state. The compressor then finishes the job by increasing the pressure the refrigerant is under thus increasing its boiling point. This much higher boiling point now means that the refrigerant is turned back into a liquid since it is not nearly hot enough to boil over. This liquid is now pushed back into the skinny copper line and returned to the coil to start the process over again.
1. The line set is the easiest part to describe. These are the 2 copper tubes that carry refrigerant back and forth between the condenser and evaporator. The larger insulated tube is referred to as the "low side" or suction line. It carries refrigerant in its gaseous state through the evaporator and back to the condenser. The smaller uninsulated tube is referred to as the "high side" or liquid line as it carries refrigerant from the condenser to the evaporator in its liquid state.
2. Air conditioning evaporator is the indoor component that is located on the top of your furnace or air handler. As the liquid refrigerant enters the coil, it passes through a metering device of some type. In short, this device controls the amount of refrigerant that enters the coil where the tubing is now increased in diameter. This limitation of refrigerant and increased volume capacity causes a significant drop in pressure. Since pressure and temperature are greatly affected by each other, the drop in pressure causes the boiling point of the refrigerant to drop significantly as well as its temperature. Now the coil, compared to our home, is a cool 65 degrees (approximately) while the boiling point of the refrigerant is somewhere around 55 degrees. This means the liquid refrigerant has boiled off into a nice heat absorbing gas. As the warm air from our home passes over these coils, the heat is absorbed into the refrigerant and sucked back to the condenser. The humidity in this air then collects on the coil like a glass of ice water on a summer day. This condensation then runs down into the drain pan at the bottom of the coil and is discharged by the pipe attached to it.
3. The condenser is the outdoor unit that really powers the whole operation. As the gaseous refrigerant that now contains the heat it has absorbed from the home returns to the condenser, it passes through all those coils you see wrapped in fins and around the compressor. As the fan in the A/C pulls air across the coils, they are cooled. As the coils cool, the gaseous refrigerant begins to return to a more liquid-like state. The compressor then finishes the job by increasing the pressure the refrigerant is under thus increasing its boiling point. This much higher boiling point now means that the refrigerant is turned back into a liquid since it is not nearly hot enough to boil over. This liquid is now pushed back into the skinny copper line and returned to the coil to start the process over again.
