When the mercury begins to rise and sweat beads form on your forehead, nothing makes your mind more uncomfortable than when your air-conditioned home begins to blow hot air.
If you’re among the nearly 100 million people in the United States who have air conditioning and know how it affects them, you understand the frustration that a malfunctioning HVAC system causes. If you understand a HVAC system diagram, you can better understand what could go wrong when your vents begin to blast warm air.
Take a look through this carefully drawn diagram of an HVAC system. This diagram helps explain most all aspects of heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) system design, installation, operation, and maintenance.
WHAT IS AN HVAC SYSTEM?
HVAC is the system in your home that controls your ventilation, heating, and air conditioning.
The HVAC system is the largest equipment you will find in any industrial or commercial building. It may also be a unit in the type of residential or business that you are in. Good HVAC systems use the scientific principles of thermodynamics, heat transfer, and fluid mechanics.
These are all fancy, fancy terms that mean that the thermostat monitors the air outside your home to make sure it stays warm.
The science of creating a well-tempered and evenly heated air flow means that your HVAC system is more than simply creating a cold flow of air around your home, it’s also about making sure you have a comfortable and comfortable place.
WHAT ARE THE COMPONENTS OF AN HVAC SYSTEM?
An HVAC system consists of two different components, indoor and outdoor. When you walk by homes in your neighborhood or even by businesses in urban areas, you’ll see a big box either behind the home or on top of the business.
THE AIR CONDITIONER EQUIPMENT
The outdoor component: it consists of the following equipment.
Fan: The fan is a product of noise, but the fan maintains its position over the compressor, keeping the compressor running with fresh outside air.
Compressor: The compressor is the machine inside your home that allows you to compress air. This is critical for the AC because it supplies the compressing unit and keeps the air going in it so that the fans can work properly.
Condenser Coil: The condenser coil is a coil that is in a box in your home that removes the heat from the refrigerant.
Refrigerant Filled Tubing: This tubing goes from the outside of your home to the inside of your home (circulates the refrigerant between the condenser coil and the indoor evaporator coil).
The external part of your HVAC pump outside air you can purchase is responsible for creating a current, compressing the air, heating it, and then removing the heat of it as it forces it to an air conditioning unit.
GAS FORCED AIR FURNACE EQUIPMENT
This is the unit you can see inside your home in a utility room or your basement. It will look like a big box with multiple tubes coming out of it, and most of those tubes will be in a linear position.
Evaporator Coil: This critical component is connected to the coil in your cold air conditioning system. The air passed through the coil will cool as it comes in contact with the refrigerant of your refrigerator, and will transfer heat into the refrigerant.
Blower: The blower creates the current of air that moves through the evaporator coil.
Filter: The filter is a porous device that you, the homeowner will have to clean. The filter removes the irritants and impurities as the air passes over it.
Return Air Duct: You can find the duct in the rooms of your home. It will expose you to air coming from the outside, so it will look like it is open, but it lacks an air supply to properly vent.
Air Handling Unit: Your AHU is the separated system you have that contains your compressor, blower motor, and any attached ductwork that connects the ducts between your furnace and air conditioner.
Air Supply Duct: These are the vast network of ducts that bring conditioning air into your rooms.
All of these components work together to create a stable temperature in your home.
HOW DOES AN HVAC SYSTEM WORK?
So how do these parts work together? What is the process that takes warm air and turns it cold or vise versa?
CENTRAL COOLING
If you have a split system, you will have a central cooling and a central heating unit. The central cooling unit works like this:
The first thing that happens is that the cold air that is blown across the evaporator coil is forced to the side. The heat energy from the flame will then be transferred via the refrigerant inside the coil to the air that passes across the coil. The unit continues to pump the refrigerant from the evaporator coil back into the compressor and continues to repeat the cycle. The heat generated by the refrigerant during operation in the home goes outside the home, and the unit blows the cold air inside the home. The moisture is condensed out of the air, and the result is cooled, dry air in your house.
CENTRAL HEATING
Central heating units do not have quite the same finesse or magic as central cooling units, but they still play an important role in your HVAC system. Inside your furnace, combustion gasses are fed into your heat exchanger to illuminate the gasses and ignite them for combustion. The heat from your home blows across your heat exchanger and is warmed. Your furnace fan blows warm air from your home through a system of ducts in your home.
WHY UNDERSTAND THE HVAC SYSTEM DIAGRAM?
When you know what an HVAC system diagram looks like and how your HVAC runs, you can easily know when it’s time to replace that old unit.
If you think your HVAC needs service, we can help you, for requesting a new system quote or schedule a repair. We can keep your temperature steady.