The principle of operation and the device of a household air conditioner

Content:

Air conditioner device
What you need to know about how the air conditioner works
Cooling operation
Output

In the modern world, it is hard to imagine your life without an air conditioner. It is the best helper in the heat, and also serves as a heater in the cold season. At first glance, it may seem that there is nothing intricate in the device, but it has a very complex structure and principle of operation. Often, not knowing these two fundamentals when operating the unit, people make mistakes, which, in turn, lead to the failure of the air conditioner. Below we will tell you about the principle of operation and the device of the air conditioner.

Air conditioner device

The unit consists of two components, the so-called split system: indoor and outdoor units. Both blocks are interconnected and cannot work without each other. To understand how the unit works, let's start with the external unit. It consists of the following elements:

a cooler that creates air currents to blow the condenser;
condenser - made in the form of a radiator, in which the refrigerant is conditioned and cooled;
a compressor that compresses freon and moves it under pressure along the refrigeration circuits;
a control unit in the form of a board, but it is rarely located in the outdoor unit of an air conditioner;
a four-code valve installed on models that have a heating function. Its purpose is to change the direction of the refrigerant, and the external and internal units of the air conditioner, as it were, change places;
a freon system filter that protects from debris and dust particles;
a protective panel that protects the inside of the case.

The device of the indoor unit practically does not differ from the external system, however, it has some important distinctive elements:

plastic panel, the purpose of which is to let air into the unit;
coarse and fine filters, which are a system that provides cleaning and protection from debris and large particles. It is recommended to clean the filters at least two to three times in six months;
a cooler for blowing the room with already heated or cooled air, and it works both in one and the other direction;
a panel with indicators that notify about the current operating mode of the air conditioner, possible errors that occurred during operation, as well as, on some models, the time and temperature in the room.

Each of the elements of the unit are interconnected by a system of copper pipes. Aluminum tubes are also often used. Refrigerant (freon) circulates through these tubes. In order to protect the device from overheating, it is blown by fans.

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What you need to know about how the air conditioner works

An air conditioner is a complicated and very capricious device. If you do not monitor its condition and signals, then it will become unusable.

At the heart of how the air conditioner works there is physics, namely the reaction of the liquid. During evaporation, heat is absorbed; during condensation, it is released.In a sense, the device is similar to a refrigerator, since its principle of operation is based on the evaporation and condensation of refrigerant, which changes its properties with an increase or decrease in pressure and temperature.

In the process of evaporation, freon takes away heat. At school in chemistry, they conducted such experiments: they wiped their hands with a solution containing alcohol, while you were experiencing cold. Alcohol, when evaporated, took away body heat. Conversely, when vapor condenses into a liquid, it gives off heat. Heat, as you know, is energy, and according to the law of conservation of energy, energy does not disappear anywhere and does not arise. For this, the air conditioner has two units - external and internal. Below are examples of how an air conditioner works in an apartment.

Cooling operation

The principle of operation of the air conditioner in cooling mode - freon evaporates in the indoor unit, and condensation occurs in the external one. When operating in heating mode, the process is reversed. This is how it happens: under pressure from the evaporator through the tubes, gaseous freon enters the compressor, the compressor compresses it to a certain pressure, thereby heating the gas to an even greater state. After that, the refrigerant is blown by the fan, and turns into a liquid state. The air sucked in by the blower cooler heats up accordingly and leaves the unit. Further, liquid freon in a warm state and under pressure enters the expansion valve (thermostatic expansion valve) or throttle, where the pressure and temperature of the refrigerant decreases, and part of it evaporates. Liquid and evaporated freon enters the evaporator from the throttle, where it finally evaporates and absorbs the remaining heat, and the air supplied by the fan from the room is cooled and fed back. The gaseous refrigerant in turn is returned back to the outdoor unit. The process is cyclical.

The process of heating an apartment of an air conditioner is reverse cooling, so it makes no sense to describe it.

Since the split-system air conditioner has an electric motor and a compressor in it, it consumes electricity. And as you know, a lot. However, it is worth knowing that the unit transforms almost three times more energy than it consumes itself. This is especially noticeable when the device is used as a space heater, since it consumes only one kW of electricity, and transforms it into heat energy 3-4 times higher than the consumed one.

Output

We hope that this article has helped you to understand and understand what the principle of operation and the device of the air conditioner is. Because, without knowing how and why many electrical appliances work, sometimes it is simply impossible to properly operate and maintain it.

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