How Does an Air Conditioner Work?

How does an air conditioner cool your home? Your home's air conditioner doesn’t really create “cold” air. Instead, it works like a heat transporter — it takes the heat from inside your house and moves it outside. The process that makes this possible is called the refrigeration cycle, and it runs in a continuous loop whenever your AC is on.

It starts inside your home with the evaporator coil. Warm air from your living space blows across this coil, which is filled with a special fluid called refrigerant. This refrigerant is colder than the air, so it soaks up the heat. 

Next, the refrigerant (holding the heat from inside your living space) travels outside to a part of the air conditioning system called the compressor. The compressor’s job is to squeeze the refrigerant, which makes it much hotter and raises its pressure. This might seem strange — making it hotter to get rid of heat — but it’s actually what allows the next step to work.

From the compressor, the hot refrigerant flows into the condenser coil, also outside. Here, a fan pulls air across the coil, and the heat that was trapped inside your living space is released into the outdoor air.

Finally, the refrigerant passes through a tiny opening called the metering device. This sudden drop in pressure makes the refrigerant lower in temperature, and it’s ready to start the process over.

In short, your AC’s whole job is to grab heat from inside and release it outside, so the air left indoors feels cool and comfortable. 

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