Air Conditioning Systems

53
Figure 4-.2 Air Conditioning System Example
54 HVAC Fundamentals

heat in the conditioned space is picked up by the supply air and

brought back through the duct system to the evaporator coil.
Now let’s start our refrigeration cycle. To begin, a mechanical
refrigeration cycle is a completely closed system consisting of four
different stages: expansion, evaporation, compression, and con-
densation. Contained in this closed system is a chemical com-
pound called a refrigerant. The system is closed so that the
refrigerant can be used over and over again, for each time it
passes through the cycle it removes some heat from the supply air
and discharges this heat into the outside air. The closed cycle also
keeps the refrigerant from becoming contaminated, as well as,
controlling its flow.
The expansion stage is a good place to start our trip through
the refrigeration cycle. This stage consists of a pressure reducing
device (also called a metering device, MD) such as an expansion
valve, capillary tube or other device to control the flow of refrig-
erant into the evaporator coil. Our system has a thermal expan-
sion valve abbreviated TXV. The refrigerant enters the expansion
stage as a high-pressure, high-temperature liquid at 90°F. It goes
through the metering device and leaves the expansion stage as a
low-pressure, low-temperature liquid. This low-temperature liq-
uid refrigerant, let’s say that it is 40°F (its boiling temperature at
this pressure), enters the evaporator coil. This begins the evapo-
ration stage of the cycle. At same time that the 40°F liquid refrig-
erant is passing through the tubing of the evaporator coil the 78°F
mixed air is passing over the same tubes. In order for heat to flow
there must be a difference in temperature. Heat always flows
from a higher level or temperature to a lower level or tempera-
ture. The air passing over the evaporator coil is warmer than the
liquid refrigerant in the tubes. Therefore, heat will be picked up
by (or transferred to) the refrigerant. In other words, the air is
cooled and the refrigerant is heated. This heating of the refriger-
ant causes it to boil off and change state from a liquid to a vapor
just as adding heat to water will cause it to boil off and change
state to steam.
The difference between the refrigerant in our system and