Air Conditioning Systems 67

CONDENSERS

Condensers may be either air-cooled or water-cooled. The

compressor’s discharge pressure depends on how rapidly the
condenser cooling medium, that is, the air or the water, will carry
away the heat of the refrigerant vapor. This heat transfer rate
depends on both the temperature of the condenser cooling me-
dium and the volume of flow of the medium across or around the
heat transfer surfaces of the condenser. The importance of lower
condenser temperatures is that the lower the refrigerant tempera-
ture that can be maintained in the condenser, the lower the con-
denser pressure will be and the smaller the horsepower-per-ton
ratio of the compressor (Table 4-1).
When the coils become dirty the dirt acts as an insulator
reducing heat transfer. If this occurs on the evaporator the evapo-
rator temperature is lowered. If the condenser coil is dirty the
temperature inside the condenser is increased. Service technicians
can help maintain good system performance by being aware of
the evaporator and condenser temperatures. Efficiency is in-
creased by increasing evaporator temperature and decreasing
condenser temperature. One way this can be done is by improv-

Table 4-1. Reduction in system efficiency when condensers and evaporators are
not maintained.
————————————————————————————————
Operating Evaporating Condensing Tons Brake BHP Increased
Condition Temperature Temperature Ref. HP per ton BHP per ton
————————————————————————————————
Normal Operation 45°F 105°F 17.0 15.9 0.93
————————————————————————————————
Dirty Condenser 45°F 115°F 15.6 17.5 1.12 20%
————————————————————————————————
Dirty Evaporator 35°F 105°F 13.8 15.3 1.10 18%
————————————————————————————————
Dirty Cond. & Evap. 35°F 115°F 12.7 16.4 1.29 39%
————————————————————————————————
68 HVAC Fundamentals

ing heat transfer by keeping the evaporator coil and condenser

coil clean (Table 4-1).

COMPRESSORS

The function of the compressor in the refrigeration system is

to pump refrigerant vapor around the system and compress the
low pressure refrigerant vapor to a higher pressure. The compres-
sor must be capable of pumping the refrigerant vapor from the
evaporator as fast as it vaporizes. If it doesn’t, the accumulated
refrigerant vapor will increase the pressure inside the evaporator.
If this happens, the boiling point of the liquid refrigerant will be
raised and the cooling process will stop. The second function of
the compressor is to compress the refrigerant vapor changing it
from a low pressure vapor to a higher pressure vapor. This pro-
cess of compression adds heat to the vapor changing it from a low
temperature vapor to a higher temperature vapor… a tempera-
ture higher than the condensing medium, water or air. This is
important so the heat from the refrigerant can be rejected into the
lower temperature condensing medium. The higher pressure sup-
ports the higher temperature. For example, in Figure 4-3, 70 psig
supports a temperature of 40°F, while 260 psig supports a tem-
perature of 120°F.

METERING DEVICES

The main types of metering devices are thermal expansion

valve (abbreviated TXV or TEV), automatic expansion valve
(AXV or AEV), float valve (on the high side or low side of flooded
systems), and capillary tube (cap tube). A metering device is a
pressure-reducing device; it reduces the pressure in the system
from high to low. It is also a flow-control device. It controls the
flow of refrigerant into the evaporator coil so that if the refriger-
ant is boiling off too soon in the evaporator, the metering device