Xynfo.com - HVAC Questions
Common Questions About Heating, Ventilation and Cooling
What is an Air Conditioner Coil?
Defined at a very basic level, an air conditioner coil is the tubing where the refrigerant can travel throughout the house. There are two main coils, the evaporator and the condenser. There is a third major air conditioning called the compressor. The compressor, which is a pump, is responsible for keeping the refrigerant flowing through the coils.
|
|
The evaporator, also known as the cooling coil, is located inside the house. The main function of this coil is to create a surface which the air inside the house can travel over. Another function of the evaporator is to provide a passageway for the refrigerant to travel in.
The evaporator’s two main functions may seem to work independently of each other, but they actually work together. The arrangement of warm air traveling over the cold refrigerant causes the air to give up heat and the refrigerant to gain heat.
This cooling coil is what’s known as a heat transfer device. It serves as the medium for the transferring of heat from the air outside of the coil to the refrigerant inside of the coil.
The other main air conditioner coil is the condenser, which is located within the outdoor air conditioning unit. The condenser, also known as the heating coil, has two major jobs.
Its first function is to remove heat from the refrigerant. This heat was created by the evaporator and needs to be released into the outdoor air so that the air conditioner will keep working effectively. Another function of the condenser is to change the refrigerant gas (formed from the evaporator’s process) back into a liquid.
To recap the functions of the condenser, the refrigerant flows into the coil as a hot gas and exits as a liquid. The condenser is able to extract enough heat out of the refrigerant to change it from a gas to a liquid.