Auto Air Conditioner

Although most of us do have an air conditioner that we hardly agreement on how it works. Maybe we gave him a thought, but was unsure where to look for an answer, or even if we tried we found the explanation too technical to make sense. Or we did not care. What we will attempt here to describe the process of air conditioning, particularly automotive air conditioning, and a simple and lucid manner so that even a novice can make sense of what we are talking about.

Understand that the basic principle of work of all air conditioners, it is a window air conditioner or automatic climate control, is the same. There are four fundamental processes of physics that we all read in our schools who are involved in the operation of an air conditioner. The four processes are - evaporation, condensation, compression and expansion.

Now for the details of the operation of an air conditioner system. We will take component by component.

Compressor: This is like the heart of the air conditioning unit. When you turn the air conditioner in your car and the compressor pumps kicked in the refrigerant vapor from the condenser. The steam is at this stage under high pressure.

Condenser: This is the device that converts the high pressure steam in a liquid refrigerant. Since the vapor condenses into a liquid much heat is generated. This extra heat is removed from the condenser by the air flow.

Receiver: The liquefied refrigerant is moving at the receiver side also called the dryer at times. It's like a small tank here and all excess moisture that has escaped into the fluid is removed. Indeed, if moisture is allowed to escape it can severely damage the unit with ice crystals form causing blockages.

Regulator: The refrigerant, now free from any moisture, the next flows into the regulator where the pressure on the fluid is removed and it is still changing from liquid to vapor.

Evaporator: Here is the refrigerant vapor absorbs heat from the air inside the car. On the other hand, the fan inside the passenger compartment pushes the air out of the evaporator and thus the cold air is circulated inside the car.