What is Air Conditioner? How it Works? Types of Air Conditioner

Air Conditioner commonly known as AC is highly popular these days and you will find it in almost all the houses. If I had to brief air conditioner in a single sentence then I would simply call a machine which has the tendency to control the temperature of an area from warm to cool and vice versa.

It even throws warm air out of the room and in exchange throws cool air. But this is just a simple way to explain the what basically is an air conditioner.

These days you will find Air Conditioner almost everywhere be it your home, office, car, bus, train, mall, shop etc. Obviously the types of the AC that is used at platform varies.

An air conditioner is an appliance or a machine that removes warms air from the occupied space and supplies cool air through a refrigeration cycle. Air conditioner is a system that follows 3 stage process of – humidification, ventilation and air conditioning commonly referred as HVAC.

Basically air that we breath is comprised of 3 components like Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide.

All these components have tendency of carrying energy or heat. Along with this water vapor is also present in the air so higher will be the air temperature higher will the water vapor quantity in the air.

Furthermore, there is also a small composition of the dust, smoke and germs in the air that we breath on daily basis. So keeping all this in mind, top air conditioners are designed in such a way that they offer best quality pure cool and warm air.

How Does Air Conditioner Works?

Basically an Air Conditioner comprises of four major parts one is the evaporator, a condenser, a compressor and along with an expansion device. Now the part of the air conditioner which is inside the house from refrigerant evaporates is termed as evaporator.

Furthermore, the fans inside basically moves the air across the evaporator coils. As soon as the air is moved across the evaporator the coils within the refrigerant picks up the air temperature. Then the refrigerant starts absorbing the heat from the air and turns it into liquid form to vapor.

In addition to this, then it goes through from being cold liquid to hot vapor. Also at the same time the air had removed the heat from itself hence the air becomes cooler. Later the vaporized refrigerant is passed to the compressor.

Now the compressor is situated outside the AC along with a condenser. Compressor is basically a device in the air conditioner which the gas from a normal state to a state of higher pressure and higher temperature.

Now, once all of this is done then the hot pressurized gas is made to flow over the third component which is named as condenser. Once again the condenser condenses the gas back into its normal state which is its liquid state and the heat is radiated away from it.

Several times the outdoor units comprises of the metal fins that help the evaporating the heat more quickly or rapidly. Then the cooled liquid is thrown back inside the room. Now you must be thinking that what is the usage of expansion device in the air conditioner? Then expansion device basically regulates the flow of the liquid refrigerant into the evaporator.

Types of Air Conditioner:

Well now let us understand the different types of Air Conditioner available. So the types of Air Conditioner’s they are available are:

1. Split AC: Such types of air conditioners are basically having two parts one is the outdoor part while second is the indoor one. Where the outdoor part comprises of compressor, condenser and expansion value. While the indoor one comprises of the evaporated coil along with the cooling fan. Furthermore, you can even use split air conditioners are used in order to cool down one or more than one rooms.
2. Window AC: Well window air conditioners are basically designed to cool single room only. Such types of air conditioners have all the components like compressor, condenser, evaporator and expansion device in a single box. Also such ac’s are made for windows so they need to be fitted in windows only. If you are looking for an Air conditioner which can cool down single room and is also cost-effective then such AC’s are best for you.
3. Packaged Air Conditioner: If you are looking for an air conditioner which can cool down multiple rooms or can cool down larger area then packaged AC’s are best for you. Such types of air conditioners come in two different types of packaging. One is a kind of package which is having a condenser, compressor, expansion value, evaporator in a single package. While the second arrangement is that the compressor and condenser are kept in single package.
4. Central Air Conditioning System: If you are looking for an air conditioner which can cool down a complete building or house, office, hotel etc. Then central air conditioning is the best preferred AC for you. Well the central air conditioner consists of a huge compressor which have the capacity to produce high cooling due to which large room can be cooled down.