How Air Conditioning Keeps You Cool When You Are Hot

Summer is heating up and many places across the country are already surpassing 100F before spring is even finished. It’s no wonder that air conditioning is such a popular form of climate control in many homes and most buildings. It can be downright dangerous to remain sweltering indoors during especially hot and humid times of the year. But how does this lifesaving cooling device really work? We usually take that box outside for granted until it breaks down. 

There are a number of different types of air conditioning units and they come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and abilities. Some are small and designed for cooling a single room. Others are huge and can keep an entire office complex at a chilly 60F. 

Smaller units are often mounted within windows and are popular with people that live in apartments or small homes. This type of unit may also be popular in parts of the country where it doesn’t get too hot for too many months of the year. If you only require minimal cooling for a few weeks during the peak of summer or if you like to have one room, such as your bedroom, cooler than the rest of your house, then a small unit like this may be just what you’re looking for. 

Families that live in homes in the city often have larger condenser units hidden somewhere in their backyard. These larger air conditioning units have the ability to keep a larger home relatively cool when properly installed. They usually use the existing duct work from the furnace and spread the cool air through the house that way. These types of units keep the entire house the same temperature, with certain exceptions at bright windows.

Larger apartment buildings, office skyscrapers, malls, warehouses, and other large businesses usually install multiple condenser units on the roof of their building. This enables them to have multiple units without taking up a lot of land space. It keeps the surrounding land safer and looking a lot better. If a building is particularly large, they may have installed cooling towers that are much larger than condensers and more effective at keeping bigger buildings cold. 

Although the size, shape and capacity to cool may vary, air conditioning units all run on basic common science. The compressor cools Freon gas and this causes it to become very hot and increases the pressure. This hot, pressurized gas runs through a series of coils that remove its heat and condenses it down into a liquid. Then, the Freon liquid flows through a valve that expands the liquid back into a very cold, and low-pressure gas. In turn, this cold low-pressure gas runs through another set of coils that allow the gas to absorb heat and reduce the temperature of air in the building.