When the temperature outside rises, there is sometimes no choice but to install an air conditioner to keep the temperature inside your home comfortable. Do you live in a region where the heat is particularly intense during the summer season? Do you dread the high temperatures? Equipping your home with air conditioning can be a real source of comfort! Although still considered a luxury by some, air conditioning is becoming more and more popular in private homes.
How does air conditioning work? What are the components and what should we pay attention to when we install an air conditioning system in our home? What about reversible air conditioners? Which system should be used to air-condition a single room or the whole house? Finally, what are the criteria for choosing an air conditioning system, and what price to expect? Discover the advice of our experts in this complete file.
How does air conditioning work?
We appreciate it because it brings us comfort and coolness during the summer, but do we really know how air conditioning works?
In its most widespread version, an air conditioner is in fact an air/air heat pump and relies on the phenomenon of evaporation and condensation. A refrigerant will circulate in a closed circuit inside the air conditioner and capture the calories (i.e. heat) contained in the room to be cooled in order to reject them outside the house.
Concretely, here are the various stages of operation of an air conditioner:
The air conditioner will suck the hot air out of your house to cool it in contact with the refrigerant, in an exchanger.
Transformed into vapor, this fluid will increase in pressure and temperature thanks to the compressor which will suck it and compress it.
The fluid is then sent to the condenser which will extract the calories and evacuate them: the heat is then released into the outside air.
The cycle starts again in a loop until the programmed temperature is reached.
The components of an air conditioner
Like a central heating system, a heat pump air conditioner has several components and a whole circuit of pipes to connect them. Before having it installed, it is important to identify the different parts of the system and the constraints that may arise.
The indoor unit
In the indoor unit, the warm and humid ambient air is cooled by the evaporation of the refrigerant in an exchanger, which causes the condensation of the humidity of the ambient air and produces liquid water: the condensate. This water is evacuated by a small pump and a pipe system that must be connected to the wastewater network of the dwelling.
The refrigerant link
After its evaporation in the indoor unit, the refrigerant is condensed and then transported outside the house by a network of pipes: the refrigerant connection. It is this same link that will send it back, after compression in the outdoor unit, to the interior of the house, in a closed circuit.
The refrigerant link takes the form of a pair of pipes, generally made of copper, covered with a thermal insulator.
The outdoor unit
This outdoor unit includes the compressor, the condenser, its fan, and the electrical power control: vital components, but rather noisy, which means that its installation must be well thought out beforehand.
To avoid noise pollution, the outdoor unit should be installed at a distance from your neighbors and from the living areas of your house and should be mounted on an anti-vibration system. Visit this important site for more info on HVAC systems.