How does an air conditioner work?

Question

How does an air conditioner work?
The window unit one and the Central One.
and How does an air conditioner uses electricity(What part of air conditioner uses electricity?)?

Detail Answers Please!
ThanksXXXX!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Answer 1

Basically there are two air coils. One gets hot and one gets cold. One fan blows on the hot coil and and one fan blows on the cold coil. The air coming off the coil will be hot or cold as you would expect.

There is a fluid connecting them in a loop, and a pump to move the fluid around the loop. The fluid follows the PV=nRT equation. This equation only means that if you add heat the pressure goes up...or if you add pressure then it gets hotter. The reverse is true as well; cool it off and pressure goes down.

So the pump makes the fluid in one coil really high pressure (and hot), and makes the other coil a lower pressure (and cooler). The difference in pressure is maintained by a valve and the pump.

So there you have a basic heat pump (energy mover). If the system runs one way it is called a Air Conditioner; when it runs the other way it is called a heat pump.

The system is more efficient when the fluid undergoes a phase change (liquid to gas). In this case the system takes advantage of latent heat. Chemicals very adept at this, while at reasonable pressure and temperatures, are called refrigerants. There are many refrigerants, and blends of refrigerants.

A window unit and a central system have the same components. A central system uses tubes (ducts) to move the air off the indoor coil to the rooms it is designed to serve. A window unit does without the duct and blows directly into the space.

Electricity is used by the pumps (compressors) and fans in the system.

Typically, central systems are more expensive and also more efficient then window units.

Answer 2

Liquid refrigerant at a low pressure is in a coil and a fan blows indoor air over the coil.
Heat is transferred from the air (cooling it) to the liquid refrigerant, which evaporates.

The refrigerant gas then goes to a compressor, which is driven by an electric motor. Compressing the refrigerant gas causes its pressure and temperature to increase (and its volume to decrease).

The hot gas then goes to another coil, where another fan blows outdoor air over it, cooling it down.

Refrigerant at higher pressure turns back to liquid at a higher temperature, and as the gas cools, it condenses inside the coil.

The high pressure liquid then goes slowly through a thin tube (called a capillary tube, or 'cap tube') back to the original coil & starts the process over.

The difference between the window and central air conditioner is that the two coils are further apart, and perhaps a metering valve is used instead of a cap tube. And the central air conditioner would have ductwork to distribute the air.

Incidentally, your refrigerator works the same way - the condenser coil is on the back of the fridge, and the cold evaporator coil is usually built into the freezer and walls of the fridge.

Answer 3

Hi, Central air conditioners distribute cool air throughout a house or building by means of ducts that channel the air from the cooling coils to each room. There are also ducts to return the air to be cooled again. These units are divided into two major parts: 1) An evaporator inside the house that cools the air, and 2) A compressor outside the house that extracts the heat from the coolant and returns it inside again. Air conditioners are usually installed in windows. The front part, the part inside the house, contains the evaporator ( the cooling part). A blower blows the cooled air out into the room that the window is in. The compressor is in the back part of the unit that extends outside the window and exhausts the heat from the condenser coils to the outside air. Hope this helps. FE

Answer 4

The refrigerant compressor motor uses electrical energy to compress gas to a high pressure. The high pressure gas is then allowed to expand through a restriction which causes a temperature drop and thus a cooling effect.

Answer 5

see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_conditioner