How Air Conditioning System Works

Air conditioning system essentially has four parts: an evaporator, a compressor, a condenser and an expansion device.

The part inside the home where the refrigerant evaporates is the evaporator, naturally. Fans in the home blow air across the evaporator's coils. The cooling fluid reaches the compressor as a low-pressure gas. The compressor squeezes this gas/fluid, and the molecules in the liquid are packed closer together. The closer the compressor forces these molecules together, the higher the temperature and energy rise. This working fluid exits the compressor as a high-pressure, hot gas, and it moves to the condenser. The outside unit of an air conditioning system has metal fins all around the housing. These fins work like the radiator on a vehicle, and they help dissipate heat more quickly.

As air from the house moves across the evaporator, refrigerant within the coil picks up the temperature of the air. The refrigerant is absorbing heat from the air and turns from a liquid to a vapor. It went from being a cold liquid to a hotter vapor, and at the same time, the air had heat removed from it, so the air went from being warmer to colder.

Indoor Air Conditioning Unit
The indoor unit is typically located in a closet or basement, and is near where your furnace filter is located. The unit consists of a coil box that contains what is called an evaporator.  The evaporator allows for the refrigerant a cooling fluid inside the coil piping or to evaporate and absorb heat. Once the heat is absorbed from inside your home, it leaves nothing but cool air to be sent back into your home.

Just as water absorbs heat from your stove in order to boil (or evaporate) refrigerant absorbs heat from your house. This means that both water and refrigerant turn from liquid to vapor as they absorb heat.

Outdoor Air Conditioning Unit
The outdoor unit is usually located in the rear or side of your house and it is where the heat from inside your home is dispersed. It contains the compressor, condenser coil and a fan. The heat absorbed from your home’s air is transferred to the refrigerant and then pumped to the outdoor unit. As this heat is absorbed and moved by the refrigerant to the outdoor coil, it passes through the compressor.

The compressor in your Las Vegas air conditioning system has the primary job of moving the refrigerant throughout the system. This is important as we can then keep reusing the refrigerant to cool our house. The refrigerant is compressed to a higher pressure, and moved through the outdoor coil known as the condenser. As the refrigerant passes through the condenser, a fan delivers ambient air across the condenser coil causing it to cool.

As the process completes, the heat from inside your house is dispersed to the air outside your house. The refrigerant is then pumped back indoors and the whole process repeats.

The entire process of making the air in your property a comfortable temperature is based on a very simple scientific principle, and the rest is achieved by mechanical means.