How A Central Air Conditioning Systems Works

From Marietta to Brookhaven, and every neighborhood in the Atlanta community, we’d be hard pressed to imagine surviving a summer without the use of air conditioning. Our modern homes include central air conditioning systems to help cool your entire living space. But it wasn’t always that way.

Even in older homes, central air isn’t always in place. Instead, homes relied on open windows and fans, upgrading to window mounted air conditioners to keep specific living spaces cool. Installing central air conditioning will not only make a home more comfortable, but it also makes the space more livable. But how does central air conditioning work?

Air is drawn into the system through return ducts. The air is cooled and dehumidified across an indoor evaporator coil and sent through the ductwork  out to registers located throughout the home. This is a much more efficient process than attempting to cool each room individually, one at a time.

A central air conditioning system is made up of four main components.

The Outdoor Condenser

The condenser is the metal unit located outside of your home and contains the refrigerant pump called a compressor, a condenser fan and a condenser coil.

The Compressor

The compressor is located in the condenser, and is responsible for pumping refrigerant through the system to transfer heat from inside the home to outside the home.

The Condenser Coil

The outdoor unit has the condenser coil in it and makes up most of the units size. The more efficient the system, the bigger the coil is. This coil is responsible for discharging the heat from the refrigerant to the outside air making it possible for the refrigerant to get more heat from inside the home.

The Evaporator

You’ll find the evaporator inside your home, usually inside the air-handler or on top of the furnace. The evaporator absorbs heat that builds up throughout your living space, transferring it into the refrigerant and sending it outside.

Expansion Valve

Usually found near the evaporator, this valve is designed to control the amount of refrigerant that is allowed to flow into the evaporator coil.

All pieces of the air conditioning system are connected by a copper tube that allows the refrigerant to move through a closed loop cycle.

Heat can then be removed from the inside through the evaporator and sent outdoors to the condenser. The process continues as long as your air conditioning system is working. The goal is to keep your HVAC system running smoothly all year long. These systems are 100% sealed and require no additional refrigerant added each year, if you need to add refrigerant, you have a leak.

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