August 17th, 2016

Learn the basics to understand your HVAC system.

Have you wondered what the main components to your HVAC system are and how they heat and cool your home and office?

Coils

There are a couple of different kinds of coils. There are condenser coils and evaporator coils. The condenser coil manages heat exchange and condenses the refrigerant gas (which is hot). After the condenser coil does it's job it passes off to the evaporator coil and releases the refrigerant to it. The evaporator coil then turns the release into cool air and blows it throughout your home or office in the duct work.

Refrigerant Lines

​ Refrigerant lines are the metal tubes that run from your furnace unit to your air conditioner. This is what the refrigerant runs through to get to the evaporator coil. The condensing unit vaporizes the liquid refrigerant into gas, which then goes to the evaporator coil as liquid.

Ductwork

The ductwork is typically made of aluminum and its job is to distribute the air room to room. The duct is cut and measured appropriately to give you the best air flow through your home or building.

Vents

Vents are openings through which the air from the ducts are released to the rooms. Both cold and hot air can pass through these vents. Some vents are also referred to as supply registers, which bring in cold and warm air, and return vents, which return the air.

Thermostat

The thermostat senses the temperature and alerts the furnace and sends the signal to turn on or shut off. Thermostats can be programmable or you can have a manual thermostat. The benefits of having a programmable thermostat is that you are able to set different temperatures for different times of day.

Furnace

The furnace is the HVAC system’s heat supplier and sends out warm air through the ductwork in the office or house. There are two different types of furnaces you can have – single stage and two stage furnaces. A single stage furnace features an on and off function and a two stage furnace operates through the thermostat. A two stage furnace is more efficient because it switches itself off when the desired temperature is reached.

Heat Excahnge

When the thermostat activates the furnace, the heat exchanger switches on and cool air enters the heat exchanger, which then pulls the air through the rooms, heated and distributed.

Air Handler

The air handler is a metal box that is used for both cooling and heating. Inside the air handler there is a blower that sends the air through the home/office and an evaporator coil. It could be said it is the most important part of an HVAC system.