If you are new to homeownership and having central air conditioning, it is important to have a basic understanding of how the system works. This will help you better troubleshoot problems when they come up since you'll know more about how that cold air is produced.
The Main Components
Your central air conditioner is essentially made of four main components that cause the entire system to work. There is the furnace unit that has the blower located in it, a cooling coil that is connected to the furnace unit, and then refrigerant lines that connect to a compressor unit on the outside of your home. Everything is then controlled by the thermostat in your home, which triggers the system to be turned on and off. The four components form a system that all work together for that cold air to be produced.
The Thermostat
Think of the thermostat as if it is the brains of the whole operation. It has a temperature sensor that reads where the current temperature is in your home, and then sends the signal to the air conditioning system to turn on when the temperature gets too hot. It is important that the thermostat is placed in a room where you spend most of your time and where you want your home to feel the most comfortable. Having it placed in a room that is rarely used with the vents closed is going to result in a home that doesn't feel as nice as it could.
The Furnace
When the thermostat triggers the air conditioning system to turn on, the furnace is going to activate the blower motor that will pull in all the humid and warm air through the return air ducts. The furnace is not going to heat the air as it does in the winter, but help start the process of moving the air through the entire system.
The Compressor and Condenser Coils
The compressor has the job of circulating refrigerants into the home, through the condenser coils, and back outside the home. The purpose of this is so that the refrigerant absorbs the heat from the air that was pushed through from the air handler. That absorbed heat is then taken back outside and released through the compressor before traveling back inside your home.
The end result is not that the air going through your air condition is chilled, but the heat is removed from the air so that it feels cold to those people in your home.
To learn more about your air conditioning, contact a residential AC service in your area.
