Air conditioners contain a cooling agent commonly referred to as an AC coolant or refrigerant. Without the HVAC coolant, your air conditioner can’t produce cool air for your home. Let’s dive deeper into how the coolant works inside your HVAC unit.
How Coolants Work in HVAC Systems
HVAC coolants easily transform from a liquid to a gaseous state. They readily absorb heat from their surroundings, allowing them to provide air conditioning.
Your air conditioner draws hot air from your home. Fans move the hot interior air over your indoor AC evaporator coils holding the coolant in a liquid state. The coolant absorbs the surrounding heat, causing the temperature in the environment around it to drop. The coolant evaporates into a gas. As the fans continue blowing, the now-cooled air is pushed throughout your home.
Air conditioning components send the warm, low-pressure refrigerant gas outside into the AC compressor. In the compressor, the gas molecules are pushed together, raising their pressure and temperature. Heat moves from hot to cold objects so the increased refrigerant temperature is useful in eliminating heat to the outside air.
After being pressurized, the hot refrigerant gas flows into the condenser. A few fans blow across the condenser pipes, cooling the refrigerant. The refrigerant cools and turns into a liquid as it releases heat to the exterior air. The liquid, having lost most of the heat absorbed from your home to the atmosphere, starts moving along to repeat the cycle.
As more liquid coolant is pumped into the indoor evaporator, more interior warm air is chilled as the coolant absorbs the heat and turns into a gas. The gas moves your home’s heat outside, leaving your house cooler.
HVAC coolant must be handled by a certified professional, so you should never try to refill or replace your own HVAC coolant. If you need to recharge your HVAC coolant or replace your R22-dependent air conditioner with one that uses the safer and more efficient R-410A coolant in the Lorain area, contact the heating and cooling professionals at Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning.
Energy 1 Heating & Air Conditioning
1 (440) 246-5440
Serving the Lorain, OH Area