PART 2

Heating, Ventilation,
and Air Conditioning
Content 3 – Unit 6

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 INTRODUCTION
• Heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC)
systems are designed to keep the room or interior at a
comfortable temperature. The air conditioning system
also helps clean (condition) the air in the room by
removing dust, pollen, smoke, and moisture.

• To understand air-conditioning theory, it is important

to have a basic understanding of how heat behaves.
The behavior of heat is a branch of physics known as
thermodynamics. An air-conditioning system uses
some very basic thermodynamic principles to remove
heat from the interior or room and dissipate or lose it
to the atmosphere outside the room.

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How air is “conditioned” in the
room.

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 PRINCIPLES OF
REFRIGERATION
• Air-conditioning and refrigeration systems
manage basic thermodynamic principles to
produce a more comfortable climate within
an enclosed area. To understand how an
air-conditioning system works, we first
have to know something about the states
of matter, heat flow, and something called
latent heat.

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 STATES OF MATTER
• Solid water is known as ice.
• Liquid water is known as water.
• Vaporized water is known as steam.

The temperature of the water determines

which of these three states it is in.

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 Pressure and Heat
• The temperature at which a liquid boils
depends on the pressure acting on the
liquid. Decreasing the pressure lowers the
boil point. Increasing the pressure raises
the boil point.

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 Latent Heat
• Whenever a substance changes state, it
either releases or consumes heat energy.
Latent heat is the amount of heat
necessary to change a substance from
one state to another.

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 SUMMARY OF AIR CONDITIONING
PRINCIPLES
• Heat always moves from a warmer area to
a cooler area.
• When liquids are heated and evaporate to
a vapor state, heat is absorbed.
• When a gas condenses from a vapor to a
liquid state, heat is released.

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 Purpose of the
HVAC System
HVAC systems perform three very important
functions:
•Temperature control. The HVAC maintains the
temperature within the inside room as selected by
the operator.
•Humidity control. The HVAC system reduces the
humidity within the compartment.
•Air circulation control. The HVAC refreshes the
air in the room or interior.

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 Air-Conditioning Components

The most common components air-conditioning

systems are:

1. Compressor 4. Evaporator
2. Condenser
3. Pressure regulating
device:
Thermostatic expansion
valve

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AIR-CONDITIONING SYSTEM
COMPONENTS

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 Compressor
• The compressor can be referred to as the
heart of the HVAC system.
• The compressor is responsible for
compressing and transferring refrigerant
gas (Figures 1-3 and 1-4).

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 Compressor (continued)

Figure 1-3. Swash plate compressor.

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 Compressor (continued)

Figure 1-4. Two-piston type compressor.

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 Compressor (continued)
• The air-conditioning system may be
divided into two different sides: the high-
pressure (discharge) side and the low-
pressure (suction) side.
• The compressor is the dividing point
between the suction and discharge sides
of the air-conditioning system.

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 Compressor (continued)
• The suction side of the compressor draws in
refrigerant gas from the outlet of the evaporator.
• Once refrigerant is drawn into the suction side,
it is compressed, which concentrates the heat in
the vapor, raising its temperature.
• The vapor leaving the compressor must be
hotter than the atmosphere so that, while it is in
the condenser, it will dissipate the heat that it
carries to the cooler ambient air.

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 Condenser
• The condenser dissipates the heat that
was once inside the room.
• The condenser is designed to radiate heat,
and it is usually located in front of the
radiator.
• (Figure 1-5).

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 Condenser (continued)

Figure 1-5. Refrigerant surrenders heat from the room to

the ambient air in the condenser.
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CONDENSER

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 Condenser (continued)
• Condensers must have air flow any time the
system is in operation. This is accomplished
by the ram air effect or by the cooling fan.
• The compressor pumps hot refrigerant gas
into the top of the condenser.
• The gas is then cooled and condenses into
high-pressure liquid refrigerant at the bottom
of the condenser or condenser outlet.

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 Pressure Regulating Devices
The desired temperature of an evaporator is
maintained by controlling refrigerant
pressure. The pressure-regulating devices
is:
•Thermostatic Expansion Valve (TXV).
The TXV’s job is to regulate the flow of
refrigerant so that any liquid refrigerant
metered through it has time to evaporate or
change states from liquid to gas before
leaving the evaporator (Figure 1-7).

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Thermostatic Expansion Valve
(TXV)

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 Pressure Regulating
Devices (continued)

Figure 1-7. An assortment of thermostatic

expansion valves.
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 Evaporator
• The evaporator’s primary function is to
remove heat from within the interior of the
room. It is also used for dehumidification.
• It is usually located within the controlled
space or is in some way isolated from the
outer environment.
• A blower motor circulates air from the
room through the evaporator coil.
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 Evaporator (continued)
• As the warmer air travels through the
cooler fins of the evaporator, the moisture
in the air condenses on their surface.
• In order to keep the evaporator from
freezing, several different temperature- or
pressure-regulating devices may be used.
• Keeping the evaporator from freezing is
extremely important because a frozen
evaporator will not absorb very much heat
(Figure 1-8).
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 Evaporator (continued)

Figure 1-8. The evaporator is the component that

absorbs heat from the room.
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EVAPORATOR

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 Evaporator (continued)
• Refrigerant enters the evaporator as a low-
pressure liquid.
• The refrigerant temperature is lower than that of
the air inside the room, and heat flows from a
warm substance to a cooler one.
• The warm air from the room passes through the
evaporator fins and causes the liquid refrigerant
in the evaporator to boil.

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 Evaporator (continued)
• The boiling refrigerant absorbs large
quantities of heat from the interior.
• This heat is then carried off with the
refrigerant to the outside of the room.
• The force that draws this low-pressure
refrigerant through the evaporator is the
suction effect of the compressor.

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Refrigerant Flow Cycle

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TYPES OF AIR CONDITIONERS
• Room air conditioners
• Central air conditioning systems

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Arrangement of Room Air
conditioner

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 Room air conditioner
• Room air conditioners cool rooms rather
than the entire home.
• Less expensive to operate than central
units
• Their efficiency is generally lower than that
of central air conditioners.
• Can be plugged into any 15- or 20-amp,
115-volt household circuit that is not
shared with any other major appliances

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 Central Air conditioning
• Circulate cool air through a system of
supply and return ducts. Supply ducts and
registers (i.e., openings in the walls, floors,
or ceilings covered by grills) carry cooled
air from the air conditioner to the home.
• This cooled air becomes warmer as it
circulates through the home; then it flows
back to the central air conditioner through
return ducts and registers

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 Types of Central AC
• split-system
– an outdoor metal cabinet contains the
condenser and compressor, and an indoor
cabinet contains the evaporator
• Packaged
– the evaporator, condenser, and
compressor are all located in one cabinet

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 REFRIGERANT
• The function of a refrigerant is to absorb
heat from the air in the room and transfer it
to the atmosphere outside the room.

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 CHLOROFLUOROCARBON
REFRIGERANTS
• Until 1995, the common refrigerant used in a
A/C system was known as R-12. This is
classified as a chlorofluorocarbon (CFC). R-
12 refrigerant boils at −22°F (−30°C, and for
years, it was considered an ideal mobile
vehicle A/C refrigerant. However, because it
is a substance of some toxicity as well as
ozone depleting, its use has in theory
become strictly controlled under the
guidelines of the federal Clean Air Act.

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HYDROCHLOROFLUOROCARBONS
(HCFCS)
• HCFC 134a – used in automobile and
truck cab HVAC systems
• HCFC 22 – used in trailer reefer
systems
• HCFC 40a – used in trailer reefer
systems

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 Ozone Depletion
• Depletion of the ozone layer has occurred at
a rate of around 4 percent per decade since
the mid-1970s and is beyond the scope of
this textbook. A simple explanation requires
understanding a little about ozone. Ozone in
the upper atmosphere filters out some of the
harmful sunlight directed toward Earth.
Chemically, ozone (O3) is triatomic oxygen;
that is, three oxygen atoms bond to form an
O3 molecule.

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 Summary
Heavy-duty heating and air-conditioning
(A/C) systems are designed primarily to
keep the cab comfortable despite the
outside weather.
• Liquids absorb heat when changed from a
liquid state to a gas.
• Gases release heat when changed from a
gaseous state to a liquid.

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 Summary (cont.)
Heat always moves from a hotter area to a
cooler area.
• The temperature at which a liquid changes
state to a gas depends on the pressure
acting on it.
• Refrigerants are required to have a low
boil point and to change quickly from a
liquid state to a gas state and back again.

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 Summary (cont.)
The basic refrigeration cycle consists of
compression, condensation, expansion,
and evaporation.
• Compression heats up refrigerant gas.
Condensation changes the state of the
refrigerant from a gas to a liquid.
Expansion reduces the pressure of the
liquid refrigerant. Evaporation changes the
refrigerant from a liquid state to a gas.

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