Refrigerant 101 Part 2

See Refrigerant 101 for the start of this explanation.

If we have a way to collect the refrigerant and put it back in the drum we would have a refrigeration system. This is accomplished with a compressor. When the refrigerant leaves the coil we were discussing it travels through a line as a low pressure vapor into a compressor that compresses the refrigerant into a high pressure vapor. When it is compressed the temperature will be much higher than the outdoor air temperature.

It then travels to a condensor coil as a high pressure superheated gas where it will be cooled by blowing ambient air across a coil. As the refrigerant gives up heat into the ambient air it will cool and condense to a high pressure liquid. This high pressure liquid will be metered through a metering device (much like the regulator we discussed earlier). As it passes through the metering device it will change to a low pressure liquid.

This drop in pressure will cause a drop in temperature of the liquid refrigerant. The low pressure liquid will travel to a coil and the temperature of the refrigerant will be less than the temperature of the air being blown across the coil. The refrigerant will absorb heat from the air causing the air temperature to drop and the refrigerant to boil and change to a low pressure vapor.

The low pressure vapor will become superheated and return to the compressor and the process will begin again.