When it gets hot, the first thing that you would do is turn on your air conditioning system. When it gets too cold for comfort, you still turn to your AC. Have you ever thought how hard life would be without this wonderful piece of engineering? I cannot think of what I would do without an AC on those hot and humid days. But how much do we really know about these machines? How many of us can successfully answer- how does AC work? I bet not many.

You might say how it matters whether or not I know how air conditioners work. Well my friend it does. If you currently have an air conditioning system in your home, it is crucial that you understand how air conditioner work to be able to carry out proper maintenance procedures and to be able to take care of minor troubleshooting problems yourself.

We all know that without proper maintenance an AC life is reduced considerably. Besides, without proper maintenance your cooling/heating system will not give you the total home comfort that you were looking forward to.

Understanding Air Conditioners
Well how does an air conditioner work? All air conditioners consist of an evaporator, expansion valve, a condenser, and a pump. The basic function of an AC is to transfer the heat from your home to the outside environment. Okay but how does air conditioner work to achieve this. The evaporator acts as the cold indoor coil and the condenser acts as the hot outdoor coil. The serpentine tubing surrounded by aluminum fins that you see in your air conditioner is the evaporator and condenser coils.

Now you must be itching to know how air conditioner units work. Have patience I am getting there. Compressor, which acts as a pump, moves a refrigerant between the evaporator and the condenser. This refrigerant functions as a heat transfer fluid. The refrigerant evaporates in the indoor evaporator coil thereby pulling the heat from the indoor and cooling it. The hot refrigerant gas is pumped outside into the condenser, where it reverts to its liquid form. When it passes through the condenser, the heat is passed outdoor.

This is a basic understanding of how do air conditioners work. This understanding will help you understand how commercial air conditioners work or how portable air conditioners work. When we look at how portable air conditioner work we will see the same principle being applied. We will have a condenser, an evaporator, a compressor, and an expansion valve. The difference will be in design, type, features, and refrigerant.