How Do Your HVAC Units Become a System?

Your HVAC system has a lot of moving parts, and they all work together to keep your home comfortable year-round. Here’s a brief guide to how HVAC system components interact – and how they can make each other perform poorly or well.

It all starts with your thermostat, which records your temperature preferences and monitors your indoor temperature. (Smart thermostats and wireless thermostats offer more options to control your temperature more exactly.) When the temperature moves out of a comfortable range, it sends commands to your central furnace or A/C.

The thermostat keeps track of the indoor temperature via one or more sensors somewhere in your home. Knowing where the sensor is located lets you know how temperature in your home is calibrated: is it in direct sunlight in the morning, thus thinking your home is hotter than it is? Does that area get good air circulation, so that the sensor accurately reports the average temperature?

The central furnace and air conditioner turn on when the thermostat tells them to. Unless you have a two-stage furnace or a variable-speed fan, they don’t generally have much flexibility in how much heat or cooling they produce: they can turn on until the temperature adjusts, and then turn off.

In order to deliver the heating and cooling, the central units pull air in through the return ductwork of your home using a fan. As it’s brought into the unit, it’s cleaned with an air filter – preventing the inner components from being damaged by dust or debris, but slowly clogging the filter and slowing airflow through the system. The air filter needs to be replaced every month or so.

Central air cleaners such as a HEPA filter may be installed here, as can central humidifiers and dehumidifiers to balance the humidity in your home. Proper humidity helps your home retain its correct temperature.

When the air has been conditioned, it’s pushed back through your ductwork to all areas of your home.

If you’re curious about how HVAC system components work in your Lorain-area home, call us at Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning!

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Lorain, Ohio about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about HVAC units and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 440-201-2959.

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