Learn All You Can About the HVAC Science Behind Heating and Cooling Your Home

If you ask any good AC technician, he or she will tell you that maintaining an HVAC system is part art, part craft, and part HVAC science. As amusing as this statement is intended to be, it is also true. For more than 100 years, countless numbers of engineers and technicians have toiled, experimented, designed, and installed modern air-conditioning machines, all of which have contributed to “inventing” modern civilization. What’s more, all of that art, craft, and science is right at your fingertips every time you touch the thermostat to make your home more comfortable.

HVAC Science

The invention of the modern air-conditioning machine, an “Apparatus For Treating Air,” hinged on one scientific fact: Heat energy moves from a warmer place to a cooler place. It is this scientific fact that explains why homes need insulation, why you can feel the warmth of your hearth from across the room, and why that spoon in the simmering pot got so hot! It also explains how when warm air is blown across cool radiator coils, humidity is reduced and the air becomes cooler — a scientific win-win.

HVAC Craft

The modern air-conditioning system is best represented by the central air AC or heat pump found in most U.S. homes. The HVAC science and technician’s handicraft maintaining home cooling and heating are the same:

• A blower pulls warm air across cold evaporator coils.
• Heat energy transfers from the warm air to the cold coils.
• Water vapor in the warm air condenses on the coils.
• The cooled and dehumidified air is blown into the home.

HVAC Art

The art of HVAC technology is not an easy one to perfect. After all, technicians are working with modern heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning machines, apparatuses, and handheld gadgets, encompassing central AC systems, furnaces, heat pumps, heat-recovery ventilators, ductless mini splits, air cleaners, air filters, UV technology, Wi-Fi, and a hundred different kinds of thermostats to control it all, perhaps from your smartphone.

When you need a technician who knows HVAC science to maintain your home’s HVAC system, contact Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning.