How Does a Central Air Conditioner Heat Exchanger Work?
Heat Transfer To understand how a central air conditioner and its heat exchanger work, it is helpful to understand a little about the laws that govern heat and heat transfer. Heat is essentially energy possessed by atoms. While atoms need a certain amount of energy to stay together, they can also hold and release extra energy. The more energy an atom holds, the more it will vibrate, causing other atoms to vibrate and making molecular structures move faster. This movement, which means increased energy, is what you think of as heat. According to the laws of thermodynamics, heat is always trying to achieve an equilibrium, moving from a warmer area to a cooler area to try and make them both the same temperature. This means that when warm air comes into contact with cold metal, some energy in the air will pass into the metal, making the air cooler and the metal warmer. Cooling Process This process governs how central air conditioners work. An air conditioner takes air from rooms throughout
