An air conditioner became compulsory home appliance and starting from schools, offices to 1 BHK household apartments everywhere you will find these appliances. Main function of any air-conditioner is to control the temperature and humidity of the air that is flowing into the room in which it is placed. People generally use it for temperature control in enclosed room. Popularly known as A.C., this device is popular in almost all the countries. There are several types of A.C.s like split, window, centralized etc. based on the design and capacity. Have you ever wondered how this device is able to control the temperature of the whole room and working of it? The principle behind working of A.C. is same as that of refrigerator.
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A.C. works on the mechanism of refrigerant liquid. This liquid changes to gas and evaporates as it extracts heat from the air around it and in low pressure conditions it again gets converted to liquid and after entering into the normal pressure region this again changes into gas. Any A.C. will comprise of three parts i.e. a compressor, a condenser and an evaporator. Compressor and condenser are usually kept outside the house where as an evaporator is kept inside the house. Compressor is the most important part of all the three as it pumps the vapor refrigerant through the system.
In the evaporator the fluid leaves as low pressure cool gas to reach compressor. The compressor will compress the gas to liquid. As the gas becomes liquid, the molecules are together and their energy is high resulting in high temperature. The working fluid leaves compressor and flows into condenser as hot air which will convert this hot air to low pressurized liquid. One can observe the temperature around outside unit, which is high due to heat dissipated from compressor.
The temperature in condenser is very low and this converts the high temperature gas into low pressurized liquid. Through a small hole this pressurized liquid will flow to into evaporator. In this process, the pressure drops and the liquid is converted into low pressure cool air to start the cycle once again. In the process of changing liquid to gas it extracts heat from the air around it. Evaporator has fins and it will blow that cool air into the room. The hot air is lighter than cool air, so it is in the upper part of the room whose heat is used to convert high pressurized liquid into low pressurized gas.
This process continues till the room attains the temperature you set. The thermostat present in the A.C. will temporarily stop A.C. for some time; if the room temperature raises again, the thermostat will automatically on the A.C. to set the temperature of your room to your desired level.
A.C.s use CFC’s and they are harmful to ozone layer. So, use A.C.s when needed and prefer natural ventilation and natural cooling methods which are more environment friendly. Use energy efficient and low capacity A.C.’s whenever compulsorily needed.
