Whether you live in a place where it is hot all year round, or you simply love spending the hot summers camped inside where it is dark and cool, you will find that you have a lot to thank your air conditioner for!  For many years, an air conditioner was a mark of luxury, but these days, most people consider them a necessity and a fact of life!  Whether you life in a apartment building where there are several air compressors to go around or you have a wall unit that sits in your window, take a look at how these great machines work and how you are getting the cool air that you love!

The first thing that you need to think about when you are thinking about how an air conditioner works is what goes into making it work.  What are the moving parts that create the flow of air?  When you pop open an air conditioner, the first thing that you will notice is that there is a compressor, two sets of coils that are filled with a coolant and an expansion valve.  When people think of the way that the their air conditioning units work, they think that cold air simply being blown into their home.  The truth of the matter is that hot air is being taken from their home, cooled, and then pumped back in.

When you start up your air conditioner, the coolant, known as Freon, starts moving.  At this point, it is a gas, and it will enter the compressor.  The action of the compressor will force the Freon gas to heat, and then it will be released into the first coil.  Because of the high pressure shape that the gas has been put into, it will move along the path of the coil.  This is typically located along the outside of the building.  As it travels, the gas will begin to cool into as a fan will start and cause the outside air to absorb the heat.

At this point, the liquid Freon is fairly cool, and it will enter the expansion valve, where it is converted back into a gas.  The Freon gas will be released into the second set of coils, which is located on the inside of the building.  The air around it will be released into the building, forcing the air to cool.

This cycle repeats until the home or room is at the temperature that it is meant to be.  It will stop when it reaches that temperature, and when the heat starts to rise again, it will kick on.

In a nutshell, this is how your air conditioner works, so keep that in mind the next time you flip it on!