How Your Air Conditioner Works

HVAC system repair

Some Sacramento homeowners may think that their AC works by removing hot air from the home and replacing that hot air with cool air. However, this is far from the truth. Read on and learn how experts from Fox Family Heating & Air, a Sacramento heating and air conditioning company, explain how your air conditioner works in order to cool your home during the hot months of the year.

Two Synchronized Movements

Two kinds of movement work together to deliver comfort to you in your home. The first movement involves the sucking of warm air into the vents in your home. Remember, warm air rises, so the warmest air in your home is the one that gets sucked into the vents for circulation through the AC system. This same air returns through the return air registers when it has cooled down. How it cools down is connected to the second kind of movement in the AC system.

The second movement has to do with the refrigerant in the AC. This refrigerant is cold before it gains heat from the air moving around it. The refrigerant then heats up and goes through a system that cools it before returning it to absorb more heat. The same refrigerant keeps undergoing these transformations without needing to be recharged. You should, therefore, contact air conditioning repair experts in Sacramento in case you see any signs of a refrigerant leak. The process of heating then cooling the refrigerant will become clearer once you understand the workings of the two key parts of the air conditioning system as discussed below.

The Indoor Unit

The indoor unit of an air conditioner is normally installed in the basement or the attic in most homes. The main component of this indoor unit is the evaporator. The evaporator has coils within which a refrigerant circulates. The refrigerant is initially cold.

The hot air which has been sucked by the vents in the different rooms of your home passes over these coils containing the cold refrigerant. The refrigerant absorbs the heat from this warm air and that heat causes the refrigerant to turn into a gas (that is why the unit is called the evaporator). The air is now cool and is returned to the different rooms in order to make you feel more comfortable.

Meanwhile, the heated refrigerant (which is now a gas) travels towards the outdoor unit in order to be cooled so that it can absorb more heat from the next batch of heated air coming from the rooms in your home.

The Outdoor Unit

The main components of the outdoor unit of your air conditioner are the compressor and the condenser. The heated air from the indoor unit travels out and finds the compressor. This compressor pressurizes the heated air and pushes it towards the condenser.

The condenser has fins similar to those in the radiator of your vehicle. These fins provide a large area into which the compressed refrigerant is released. The large surface area allows the pressurized gas to spread out.

Meanwhile, fans blow air across the surface of the fins into which heated air has been released. That ambient air absorbs the heat from the refrigerant and the refrigerant cools. The refrigerant converts into a liquid as it loses heat to the air around the condenser fins. That is why this section of the outdoor unit is called the condenser (it facilitates the condensation of the hot refrigerant gas into a cold liquid). This cold liquid flows towards the indoor unit where it will absorb heat from the warm air coming from the vents in your home. You may need to consider air conditioner replacement (Sacramento) in case a major component, such as the compressor, fails and the outdoor unit can no longer do its work.

The process described above is repeated until the thermostat detects that the temperature inside the home has dropped to the desired level. A signal is then sent to the control unit of the AC to shut off the system. Another signal will be sent later to restart the system once the thermostat detects that the temperature has risen beyond the set level. Your AC keeps cycling on and off throughout the day in order to keep the home at the desired temperature.

The discussion above only covers the basics of how your air conditioner works. Other activities, such as the removal of contaminants (by the filter) and the removal of excess humidity (by the dehumidifier) take place while the heated air is moving from the rooms to be cooled and then returned once more.

Any defect at any point of this well-coordinated process will affect the degree of comfort that you experience in your home. That is why it is important to call AC maintenance and repair and repair professionals from trusted companies, such as Fox Family Heating and Air so that an inspection can be conducted to locate and fix the defect.

Benefits of HVAC Zoning

Have you heard about HVAC zoning?  Wondering if it would be worth it to retrofit your heating and cooling system with a zone control system? Read on and discover some of the key benefits which technicians at Fox Family Heating and Air attribute to zoning the HVAC system in your residential or commercial property.

Enhanced Comfort

The primary reason why HVAC systems are installed is to give building occupants comfort. HVAC zoning takes this comfort to a higher level. This is because every zone or section of the building can have its temperature controlled independently. For example, the rooms upstairs may be warmer than those on the ground floor. HVAC zoning allows the people upstairs to lower the thermostat settings without causing any inconveniences to those downstairs who don’t want that lower temperature.

Reduced Energy Consumption

HVAC zoning also reduces the amount of energy which is used to cool or heat the premises. These energy savings arise due to the adjustments made for each zone based on the needs of the occupants. For example, you can increase the heating to the bedrooms upstairs during the cold months while reducing the heating downstairs since no one will be in the living room or kitchen at night. You’ll get energy savings by not heating unoccupied rooms downstairs.

If all the lights in your home were controlled by one switch, you’d get similar results. Such a situation forces you to leave lights on in the unoccupied rooms, wasting energy. Zoning prevents such wastage. These energy savings can even offset the investment you made to your Sacramento heating and air conditioning company to install HVAC zoning in your premises.

Convenience

More convenience is another benefit of HVAC zoning.  You may need to walk downstairs in the middle of the night to adjust the settings of the thermostat. With heating, cooling and air conditioning controlled from a central location, buildings without HVAC zoning will come with such inconveniences.

Zoning brings convenience since the thermostats of the different zones will be located within those zones. Consequently, you will take a shorter walk to adjust the settings on the thermostat regulating the conditions in the affected room.

Prolonged Equipment Life

Your HVAC equipment is likely to experience less wear and tear if you installed a zoning system. This is because there will be few occasions when the system will be operating at full capacity. For example, the bedrooms may require less heating or cooling during the day.  This is when most activities in the home take place in the living room and the kitchen. Similarly, the living room and kitchen will require less heating or cooling at night while you sleep. This phased demand for heating or cooling allows the HVAC system to operate at less than full capacity during most hours of the day. You will, therefore, have a reduced need to pay for air conditioner repair (Sacramento).

As you can see, HVAC zoning will enhance the value you get from your heating or cooling system. However, those benefits can only come if the zoning system is installed correctly by an experienced professional, such as those at Fox Family Heating and Air.  Get a professional assessment of your requirements before choosing the best HVAC zoning system for your home.