Have you ever thought about how your air conditioner keeps your Whitesburg, Kentucky, home cool? An air conditioner removes heat from the air inside your home, sends the heat outdoors, and recirculates newly cooled air throughout your house. Learn how the compressor, an essential component inside your air conditioner, functions and the maintenance required to keep it working.

Air Conditioning System Parts

Central air conditioning systems are made up of an evaporator, a condenser, and a compressor. The compressor serves as a go-between between the evaporator, located inside your air conditioner, and the condenser, the unit outside your home.

The Air Conditioning Process

Your air conditioner pulls warm air through return air vents in rooms throughout your house. Coils in the evaporator unit, which are filled with a gaseous refrigerant, absorb heat. The heat-filled refrigerant is pumped outdoors to the condenser unit so that the heat can be released. The refrigerant travels back to the evaporator where the process begins again.

The Role of the Compressor

When refrigerant leaves an air conditioner’s evaporator, it takes the form of low-pressure gas. To release the heat the refrigerant has absorbed, the refrigerant needs to be in a higher temperature, higher pressure form. The compressor packs molecules in the gas-based refrigerant tightly together, a process which raises both the temperature and pressure of the refrigerant. Since heat moves from warm to cool surfaces, the heat that’s now in the high-temperature refrigerant moves to the cooler air outdoors where it can be released through the condenser.

Air Conditioner Compressor Maintenance

Only a licensed HVAC service technician should perform any tune-ups on your air conditioner’s compressor. During an air conditioning maintenance visit, our service technicians will check the refrigerant levels to make sure enough refrigerant is present. Running your air conditioner with too little refrigerant can put stress on the compressor. Over time, this stress could cause the compressor to fail.

Now that you understand how your air conditioner’s compressor operates, keep it working correctly by scheduling an air conditioning maintenance appointment today. Call Appalachian Refrigeration, Heating & Cooling at (606) 436-0682.

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