Lennox Merit Series Lennox Elite Series Lennox Signature Collection
ICE-HVAC is Barrington's Most Reliable AC Installation & AC Repair Company
What Does An Air Conditioning Installation Include?
Air Conditioning Condensers are COOL
An A/C install begins with the condenser. It is the part of your HVAC system lives its life outside your house. Its job is to keep your home cool by transferring heat and humidity from inside your home during colder season. If you have a heat pump, the condenser is also responsible for transferring cool air from your home in the winter months to keep you warm.
Your cooling system consists of a few important parts such as the evaporator coil, thermal expansion valve/piston, condenser coil, refrigerant compressor, a condenser fan, blower motor and many various electrical controls.
If your HVAC system had lungs, it would be the furnace or air handler blower that pulls warm air from your return vents and pushes the air throughout your homes supply vents. The blower fan is probably one of the most important parts of the HVAC system as it circulates that air across the cool indoor evaporator coil to dehumidify the air and cool your home. In the winter, the same blow circulates the air across your heat exchangers to provide warm air.
When you set your thermostat for cooling, it sends a signal to the condenser and fan to turn on. The condenser pressurizes the refrigerant and sends it through the copper lines into your evaporator coil. Once it reaches the coil, it goes through a small orifice or thermal expansion valve that vaporizes the refrigerant into the warm evaporator coil. When the refrigerant expands, it cools the evaporator coil to just above freezing temperatures.
The condenser and evaporator coils are made up of mostly copper/aluminum tubes covered with aluminum fins that kind of look like your cars radiator. As air passes through these small fins, they help remove heat from the refrigerant at the condenser and absorb heat from the refrigerant at the evaporator coil.
During the summer, the warm air from your homes return vents passes through small fins on the evaporator coil that cool the incoming filtered return air. That air is then pushed into your supply plenum by the blower fan to be distributed by the ducts to your supply vents. Once the refrigerant passes through your evaporator coil and absorbs all the heat from the return air, it returns to the condenser to be pressurized again and the process starts all over.
I know there is quite a bit of information here. Its likely more then you ever cared to know about the refrigeration process, but if your intrigued, feel free to contact ICE-HVAC if you have any questions. Furthermore, if you would simply like to leave it to the professionals, we are always available to provide reliable air conditioning repair services.
We Now Offer Reliable Lennox Heat Pump Installation
Another classification of condensers is called a heat pump. These types of condensers have always been very popular in the south due to their mild winters. Instead heating your home with natural gas, people use special heat pump condensers that have what is called a reversing valve. When your system calls for heat and the outdoor temperature is within range of your heat pumps capabilities, the reversing valve will activate to reverse the direction of refrigerant flow.
Essentially, a heat pump operates your air conditioning condenser in the opposite direction to heat your home in the winter. Instead of the indoor coil getting cold, it gets warm and the outdoor coil gets cold and condensates. Because of this condensation on the outdoor coil in the winter, heat pump will freeze up. There are sensor built into the condensers that sense this and deactivate the reversing valve to melt the ice and then reactivate once its defrosted.
In recent years, heat pumps have become much more efficient in operating at subzero temperatures and therefor are becoming increasingly popular in our northern climate. As natural gas and electric cost have been increasing, it may be a good idea to have this as an additional alternative heating source for your home. One thing to consider is that the heat coming from your vents with a heat pump will typically be about 80F-90F compared to 100F-120F with a furnace.
Heat pump technology does have advantages, since your system will run longer, the temperature in your home will be more consistent but it may cost more to run depending on the efficiency rating. Additionally, heat pumps do typically have a higher initial cost compared to an air conditioning condenser, there are many tax incentives and electricity company rebates available if you would like to make the switch.
** Keep in mind, most modern furnaces also provide more even temperatures by the use of a variable speed blower motor and multi staged heating.
Looking For Local Barrington Area Air Conditioning Repairs?
Whether your looking for a new AC Installation near me or simply looking to get your existing system working properly with AC repair near me, we have you covered. We service Barrington, IL and the surrounding areas including; Island Lake, Barrington Hills, Inverness, Palatine, Hawthorne Woods IL, Lake Zurich IL, Deer Park IL, Cary IL, Fox River Grove IL, Crystal Lake IL, Kildeer IL, Wauconda IL, Grayslake IL, Lake Barrington IL, North Barrington IL, Algonquin IL, Mchenry IL, Lake in the Hills IL, Schaumburg IL, Elgin IL and South Barrington IL.
Don’t be discouraged you do not see your town listed, we are pretty flexible depending on our workload throughout each season. Please feel free to contact one of our comfort advisors to see if we can make it out to your neck of the woods.
