How Does Air Conditioning Work?
The first air conditioning system to run on modern principles was built in 1902 by an imaginative electrical engineer named Willis Carrier. His design solved a critical humidity issue that severely limited other designs of the time. The basic idea of cooling air is simple. It’s about transferring heat energy from the air and into another medium. If you are sweating, even imperceptibly, you benefit from this basic principle by turning on an electric fan. As the air moves over your skin, the heat you feel is transferred into the moving air and carried away from you. Of course, the electric motor contributes to the heat in the room, but as long as you sit within the moving air, you’ll feel cooler. How Air Conditioners Work Today’s advanced air conditioning machines take this process and enhance it with a four-step process; evaporation, compression, condensation, and expansion. Evaporation & Compression Air is first moved over the evaporator. On the surface of the evaporator, a refrigerant contained inside the cooling coil is used to absorb the heat of the air. Because the refrigerant has a very low boiling point, it goes from being a cold liquid to a very warm vapor. The...
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