Air Conditioning 101
Let’s be honest, we live in Florida – we have about 360 days of heat here. It is vital that we have a working air conditioner in our place of work, our cars, and our homes. If not, we would be a lot of overheated people not being very productive. Hot kitchens, stuffy and hot office spaces sap our energy and make it hard to do any task.
Whether you are trying to make your home comfortable or want to offer a cool oasis for your employees and customers, installing air conditioning is an investment in better health so lets talk about how they work.
How do Air Conditioners Work?
On July 17, 1902, Willis Haviland Carrier invented the first modern air-conditioning system. This invention changed how we lived and worked! Doctors were able to keep medicine at a regulated temperature which helped keep them for expiring sooner, it aided in manufacturing and helped keep foods preserved. Before you knew it, in 1922 they installed an air conditioning unit in the Metropolitan Theater in L.A. Who doesn’t love to sit in a cool movie theater with a bucket of popcorn?!
People soon learned that precisely controlling indoor temperature and humidity offers some pretty great advantages. Other places started getting onboard of the air conditioning train and pretty soon stores and homes were getting cooler.
That’s just a little history but how does an air conditioner actually work?
In its most basic description, the air conditioning process involves two actions that occur simultaneously, one inside the home and one outside the home.
- Inside the home (sometimes referred to as the “cold side” of the system), warm indoor air is cooled as it blows across a cold cooling coil full of refrigerant. Heat from indoor air is absorbed into the refrigerant as the refrigerant turns from liquid to gas. The cooled air is distributed back to the house.
- Outside the home (sometimes referred to as the “hot side” of the system), the refrigerant gas is compressed before entering a large coil in the outdoor unit. Heat is released outside as the refrigerant turns back to a liquid and a large fan pulls outdoor air through the outdoor coil rejecting the heat absorbed from the house.
The result is a continuous cycle of heat and humidity being removed from indoor air, cool air returning to the home, and heat and humidity exiting the home.
Source: https://www.carrier.com/residential/en/us/products/air-conditioners/how-do-air-conditioners-work