Air conditioners make your home comfortable by cooling the air, lowering the humidity, and removing airborne dust and dirt to provide quality air to your rooms. There are two main units to the air conditioner that supply this comfort – the indoor air handler/evaporator and the outdoor condensing unit – with many components inside each unit doing the work.
Air handler unit
The air handler/evaporator removes heat from your indoor air, and sends the resulting cool air to your rooms through ductwork. The air cooling process begins with the evaporator coils and fins in the unit.
- Evaporator coils are cooled by the refrigerant flowing through them and evaporator fins, surrounding the coils, increase the cooling area.
- A fan blows air over the cold coils and fins, removing heat and cooling the air, which enters the supply ducts and flow to your rooms.
- The fan pulls the air from the rooms back to the unit through return ducts.
- Filters remove dirt and dust particles from the air before entering the unit, and the cooling begins again.
- The condensate pan in the bottom of the unit collects moisture, lowering the humidity levels in the air; a condensate drain releases excess moisture outdoors.
Condensing unit
The condensing unit houses the components used to transfer heat outdoors and cool the refrigerant needed to repeat the cooling process in the air handler.
- Refrigerant warms and turns into a gas as it flows back to the condenser from the air handler.
- A fan blows over the warm refrigerant pipes and releases the heat.
- A compressor pressurizes refrigerant into a cold liquid form, which flows through insulated copper pipes back to the air handler and into the evaporator coils.
These are the main parts and functions of your air conditioner. Understanding the basic parts of your air conditioner and regular maintenance will keep your system running cost effectively and efficiently.
At Ace Hardware Home Services, Inc., we specialize in wholesome air quality, home comfort and energy savings. Our professional technicians are educated in the latest technology to provide you with exceptional and affordable service. If you live in the Dayton area and have questions about your air conditioner, please contact our staff for more information.
Our goal is to help educate our customers in Dayton, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about air conditioners and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Resource guide.
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