What are the most important air conditioner parts and how they work? If you know some of the basic details, sometimes, you yourself can manage the unexpected and not so severe breakdowns when there is no immediate professional help available.
Also, you need to know when not to try any repairing work on your own. It’s best to leave some complicated technical and mechanical issues on the professional hand.
So coming to the main point, most air conditioners have three major parts. The compressor, the condenser and the evaporator are the three very important air conditioner parts that help in cooling down the air. The cooling mechanism is almost same for an air conditioner and a refrigerator. Remember, the repairing cost for some of these parts can be very high. Trying DIY repairing is not advisable for them.
There is a simple mechanism – when a liquid turns into gas, it absorbs heat. Air conditioners use this mechanism to cool the air inside a house. Now, these machine parts help in the mechanism. The air conditioner ducts extract the hot air in the room and flows over the chemical filled coils to bring the temperature of the air down.
Let’s see what these machine parts do and how they aid in this overall cooling system.
The Compressor
· As mentioned earlier, the air conditioning system takes the heat inside the home and throws it outside.
· The compressor part of an AC is very important because it helps to turn the gas into a liquid form and assist in the cooing process. Compressor plays a major role in the overall cooling system.
· The only basic difference between the cooling system of a refrigerator and AC is that the air conditioner cools a lot bigger space than a refrigerator.
· The compressor helps the refrigerant to flow in a continuous cycle.
· The air conditioner works using a chemical which is otherwise known as refrigerant. AC converts the gas into liquid and then liquid to gas during the cooling process. When you switch on the AC and set a desired temperature, the gas or the refrigerant arrives at the compressor.
· The refrigerant absorbs the heat inside the house. It enters the compressor via the suction line. The compressor squeezes the gas very tightly together. The tightly packed molecules increase the pressure and the temperature of the gas.
· So, the compressor is responsible for changing the low pressure gas into the high pressure state.
· When the high pressure gas becomes very hot, it enters the condenser. Into the condenser, the hot high pressure gas turns cool and converts again into the liquid form.
The Condenser
After the compressor, the second most important air conditioner part is the condenser. The condenser is a device that helps to condense an element from the gas form to the liquid state. This part is used in the AC for the heat transfer process.
· Condenser is kind of a heat exchanger. Its main job is to release the heat in the gas. In a refrigerator, condenser is used to eliminate the extracted heat from the interior of the unit. For a room air conditioner, it works the same way.
· Condensers sometimes look like radiators.
· The condenser is made of hollow coils. The hot and high pressure gas travels to the condenser and enters the coil as a part of the cooling process. The condenser then helps the heat to escape, brings the temperature of the gas down and turns it into a liquid form.
The Evaporator
· The evaporator helps in the last step of the cooling process. The cold liquid comes from the condenser and again turns into gas here. It happens because of the low pressure of the evaporator.
· During this transition, a fan blows the hot air of the room over the cold coil to bring the temperature of the air down. The fan assists in the contact of the air and coils.
· The fan again blows the cold air back to the room. As cold air is generally heavier than hot air, it comes down near the floor. The gas leaves the evaporator and enters the compressor to repeat the whole process again and again.
· The whole process continues to repeat until the overall room temperature reaches the desired limit you set on the thermostat.
Expansion Valve
· The expansion valve controls the quantity of liquid refrigerant entering the evaporator.
Filters
· The in-built filters in the room air conditioners help you breathe clean air inside the room. There are always dust particles in the air which you don’t realize naturally. AC filters remove these dust particles.
· Over the months, these various air borne elements accumulate on the filters. This is why most of the times you need to clean the filters or replace them after a certain point of time to keep the room air fresh and clean.
Thermostat
As we mentioned earlier, the thermostats are the sensors. You set a desired temperature on the thermostats. It indicates the level of air temperature you want inside the room.
The air conditioner will continue to cool the air until the air temperature reaches the desired level. The sensor in the thermostat will notify the air conditioner once the room temperature cools down to that level and the AC will stop working for a while. The AC will start working when the temperature of the air inside the room will rise again.
Muffler
This AC part controls the sound that compressor creates when working. The original sound of the compressor will be very annoying. This is why this part helps you enjoy a comfortable air in a silent environment.
So, most of these air conditioner parts are very important for the effective operation of the machine. These parts need time to time maintenance and a careful use. The compressor might get old after a while and stop working effectively. You will immediately notice the change as your AC will not provide effective cooling. The more you know about this mechanical stuff, the easier will be effective handling.