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Common Questions About Heating, Ventilation and Cooling
What is an Air Conditioner Condenser?
Before we get into the specifics of the air conditioning condenser, it’s good to have a basic review of how the entire cooling process works. An air conditioner contains three major parts: an evaporator, a compressor and a condenser. The evaporator is sometimes referred to as the ‘cold coil’ and it is located inside the house. As a liquid refrigerant (such as Freon) moves through the evaporator coil, it turns into a gas. This gas travels to the compressor, which is a pump, and is compacted and heated.
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Now it’s show time for the air conditioner’s condenser. This compacted and heated gas starts flowing toward the condenser. The condenser, a coil, is part of the outdoor air conditioning unit. You’ve probably seen the outdoor unit. It’s that medium-sized rectangular or cylinder-shaped box sitting somewhere a couple of feet from your house.
By the time the refrigerant has traveled throughout the house via the evaporator coil, it becomes hot. The refrigerant needs to be cooled again in order to keep the air conditioner working effectively. The condenser’s job is to take that hot, compressed gas from the compressor and change it back into a liquid. (Who says only magicians can do tricks?)
The condenser takes that hot refrigerant gas and changes it to a liquid by cooling it. The condenser coil is a long piece of tubing that has a serpentine, or curvy, shape. This tubing has aluminum fins bordering it all around. As the hot gas travels through the condenser’s tubing, its heat gets pulled out through the aluminum fins with the help of the compressor pump and is released in the outdoor air.
Inside the compressor, the cooled refrigerant gas goes back into the house. This cold gas travels through the evaporator coil again, enabling the gas to soak up more heat and thereby cooling the air inside the house.