How is heat removed from your house by the air conditioning system?

How is heat removed from your house by the air conditioning system?

• Most Austin houses with a central air conditioning system have an outdoor unit called a condenser with a compressor, and indoor equipment consisting of an air handler and an evaporator coil. This arrangement of equipment is commonly referred to as a ‘split system’.

• Refrigerant usually referred to as Freon travels between the outdoor condenser and the indoor evaporator coil through copper tubing. Refrigerant absorbs heat and also releases heat as the temperature of the refrigerant goes up or down. The refrigerant changes from liquid to a gas and back to a liquid as it travels through the copper piping.

• The Freon is very cold and in liquid form as it starts to travel through the evaporator coil (usually in the attic). The air handler forces air (that has come from the house) across the evaporator coil. The very cold liquid Freon in the copper piping absorbs this heat and then begins to turn into a vapor.

• This vapor travels to the compressor in the outdoor condenser through the copper tubing. The compressor puts the vapor under high pressure and forces it through the coil in this outdoor unit. The coil absorbs the heat and releases it to the outdoor air. The vapor that has traveled through the outdoor coil gets converted to low pressure and it turns to a low temperature liquid which circulates back into the evaporator coil in the attic. This repeats as long as the system is on and trying to get the house to a lower temperature.

• So you can see why a dirty and old evaporator coil and an old condenser with an old compressor is not going to be very efficient and will seemingly run all day and cost you lots of money.
  
  
  
• Christian Brothers Air Conditioning will provide a no cost, in home estimate to replace older equipment with new highly efficient equipment.