A central air conditioner is a life-saver in the sticky dog-days of New England summers. Of course, you may be thankful for your central A/C, but do you know how it works?
Central air conditioners work a lot like a refrigerator. Refrigerant travels through the tubes and coils of the machine to absorb the heat in one part of the machine and move it to another. When it takes away the heat parts of the machine make, it leaves coldness in its absence. An A/C will then take that coldness and put it somewhere else–namely, your house.
Window unit air conditioners are possibly the most well-known method of cooling a home. Their cooling process is similar to a central air conditioner, but they are installed in an open window and can only cool one room instead of a whole house.
As you know if you pay your own energy bill, air conditioners can take up a lot of energy. That’s why it’s so important for it to be energy efficient.
For people looking for a truly energy efficient way to cool their house, we usually point them towards a ductless mini-split air conditioner. A ductless mini split is a lot like a regular air conditioner, but, as you may have already guessed, it doesn’t have any ducts. Instead, there is an outdoor unit and an indoor unit. The part of the mini split that is inside your house takes your home’s warm air and cools it down by blowing it over coils with refrigerant in them (like a traditional A/C). The heat that the refrigerant removes then goes outside of your house, thanks to the outdoor unit.
And because we live in New England and get to experience sweltering summers and frigid winters, the best part of ductless mini-splits is that most of them are also heat pumps! That means they can heat your house by reversing the system that allows it to cool your home. Mini-splits are also great because they are smaller than traditional central air conditioners and they allow you to heat or cool specific zones of your house.
There is no one perfect cooling solution for every home. Some houses need central air systems, some owners prefer mini splits, and some people only need window units. Not sure what’s right for you? Give Evolved Mechanical a call today and we’ll answer all your questions!