❄️ How an Air Conditioner Works (The Refrigeration Cycle)
All air conditioners operate using the same core principle: the refrigeration cycle, which exploits the physical law that when a liquid converts to a gas (evaporation), it absorbs heat.
Evaporator Coil (Indoor Unit): The liquid refrigerant expands and evaporates into a gas. As it does this, it absorbs the heat from the warm indoor air blowing across the cold coil. This cools the air, which is then circulated back into the room.
Condenser Coil (Outdoor Unit): The hot, high-pressure refrigerant gas flows through the condenser coil. A fan blows ambient outdoor air across the coil, allowing the heat to be released (rejected) into the outdoors. As the heat is removed, the refrigerant condenses back into a high-pressure liquid.
Expansion Valve (or Metering Device): The high-pressure liquid travels back inside and passes through the expansion valve, which drastically lowers its pressure and temperature, returning it to the evaporator coil to start the cycle again.
Insufficient Cooling: Often caused by dirty air filters, low refrigerant levels (indicating a leak), or dirty condenser coils.