The month of April to June is the hottest time for the residents of Patna because at this time the summer season is at its peak, to avoid this heat, we take a rest by running inside the four walls of our houses. In such a time, air conditioner shines as the most valuable part of our life, but have we ever thought that after all, the one who is giving us such cold air, how does ac work in the end, some of you must have tried to know it. But if you could not get the answer correctly, then we would request you to read this blog completely so that you all can know how much work works.
How does an ac work in a room?
As we all know a split air conditioner consists of two units which are commonly called indoor unit & outdoor unit. The unit which is installed inside the house is called the indoor unit & the unit which is fixed outside the house is called the outdoor unit.
Working principle of an air conditioner
The basic principle on which air conditioner works is termed Latent Heat of Vaporization. It is defined as the heat consumed by the fluid changing its state into gas and discharging those heat into the atmosphere, that process is called the latent heat of vaporization. See below for a better understanding.
Latent Heat of Vaporization
In the summertime, we start sweating a lot because our body temperature gradually increases ( fig.1 as shown above ) and as the sweat dries up, we feel good that our body temperature starts falling at that time because sweat absorbs the heat ( fig.2 ) from the skin of our body and evaporates it. When the sweat drops evaporate ( fig.3 ) in the atmosphere and take away that heat from the surroundings, that cycle is called the latent heat of vaporization.
Parts of an air conditioner
An air conditioner (i.e., split type) is a structure of 2 units, one called the Indoor unit and the other called the Outdoor unit. Evaporator & Expansion valve is the parts present available inside the indoor unit. Compressor & Condenser are found inside the outdoor unit of an air conditioner.
So let us now try to know better about these parts,
1. Compressor
As its name specifies” COMPRESSOR which means to compress something “. This part handles the gas form of the refrigerant. It basically converts the lower temperature–pressured gas into the higher temperature–pressured gas. The temperature of the refrigerant at the compressor outlet is much higher than the atmospheric temperature.
2. Condenser
Condenser works to change the high temperature – pressured gas into a chilled liquid by removing its heat with the help of an outdoor fan.
3. Expansion Valve
An expansion valve is used to reduce the continuous flowing of refrigerant liquid thus reducing the pressure of the liquid.
4. Evaporator
Evaporator helps refrigerant in stealing away the heat. It evaporates liquid into gas. That chilled refrigerant steals away the heat from the room.
Working of an Air Conditioner
An air conditioner consists of 2 coils that are connected to each other and a regular refrigerant fluid ( a chemical compound used to run your air conditioner ) starts circulating inside them whenever the supply is given to the air conditioner. The most commonly used refrigerants in the air conditioner are R22, R32, and R410A, these refrigerants evaporate very easily and have a high latent heat of vaporization.
The 2 interconnected coils are named Evaporator Coil which is available in your indoor unit & the other one is named Condenser Coil which is available in your outdoor unit.
2 Connected Coils of an Air Conditioner
When you switched on the air conditioner, the refrigerant inside the evaporator starts absorbing the heat from inside the room ( Latent Heat of Vaporization ) & the refrigerant liquid is converted into gas & sent to the compressor.
Low-temperature-pressured gas reaches the compressor & as the compressor compresses the gas with high temperature & pressure the temperature of the gas increases along with the pressure. When the refrigerant gas leaves the compressor the temperature & pressure of the gas is very higher even more than the atmospheric temperature & then it is sent to the condenser.
When the refrigerant passes through the condenser coil, the high-temperature-pressurized gas begins to change its state to a chilled liquid because the condenser unit has a fan that allows the heat of the refrigerant to come into contact with the outside atmosphere. This causes the temperature of the refrigerant to drop and it to return to the chilled liquid refrigerant & it is sent to the expansion valve now.
So far, where the refrigerant was flowing through very large spaces, due to the expansion valve, now the refrigerant has to flow through a very thin space, due to which the refrigerant is divided into many pieces, due to which the pressure starts falling slowly and the pressure drops, due to the fall, the temperature also drops & now it is sent to the sensible heat storage ( thermostat ).
Sensible heat storage is used to detect the temperature connected to the other side of an evaporator. This heat storage is sensitive to temperature changes as the temperature at the exit of an evaporator rise, the gas pressure rises which in turn presses a spring to send more refrigerant to the evaporator. When the amount of refrigerant going into the evaporator surges, cooling emission surges too. When the temperature at the exit of an evaporator drops, gas pressure drops and the amount of refrigerant going into the evaporator, in turn, drops too & this entire flow of air conditioner continues like this.
So now I hope from you that you must have got the answer to your question that how” AC work “.
If you also want to know how central ac work, then you can read about it on:
If you still do not understand ” How Does An Split AC Work In Our Homes ? “, then you can socialize well by watching the video given below: