How Do Central Air Conditioners Work?

The central air conditioner is one of the most common forms of cooling equipment. But have you ever thought about how it actually works? How can a piece of machinery “generate” cool air for your HVAC system? Rather than producing cool, dry air, your air conditioner instead absorbs ambient heat from indoors and transports it outside your home. The most important components within your air conditioner are responsible for this process. Let’s take a closer look at what central air conditioners consist of, and how these parts work together to help you stay cool.

Central Air Conditioners Consist of an Indoor Unit and an Outdoor Unit

The key components in your central air conditioner are divided between two housing units. One is placed outdoors and the other indoors. The indoor unit is usually called an air handler and is installed near other HVAC machinery, such as your furnace. This separation is important for the proper cycle of absorbing and dissipating heat. Otherwise, the heat would just be dumped right back inside your home.

The Indoor AC Unit Collects Heat and Sends Cool Air into the Ductwork

The air handler portion of your central air conditioner is responsible for absorbing the latent heat in the air inside your home. As the heat is captured, moisture is also removed and drained away from the rest of the HVAC equipment. The cool, dry air is sent through your home’s air ducts while the heat is directed toward the outdoor unit. Here are the primary components you’ll find in your central air conditioner’s indoor unit:

The indoor unit also houses the HVAC system’s air filter. While not a part of the cooling process, the air filter is still important. It captures airborne particles like dust, allergens and even bacteria before it can travel through the ductwork.

The Outdoor Unit Emits the Heat and Compresses the Refrigerant

The outdoor cabinet uses pressure and airflow to force heat out of the refrigerant. This process requires several key components and revolves around changing the coolant’s state of matter. It starts in a gaseous state and is pressurized into a liquid one before rapidly shifting to a gas again. This sudden change in its state of matter is the same principle for why sweating helps cool your body down. The key components in the outdoor unit include:

At this point in the cooling system cycle, all that’s left is for the AC refrigerant to return to the indoor air handler. With the expansion valve converting the coolant into vapor again, the process can start over.

This Cycle of Evaporation and Condensation Keeps Your Home Cool

As long as the refrigerant supply remains consistent, the cooling cycle will function normally. Thanks to its ability to retain and expel heat, we can now keep our homes cool through the warmer months of the year.

If you’re considering a new air conditioner or need a problem with your existing AC resolved, why not call Home Heating & Cooling? Our technicians are fast, efficient and dedicated to your sense of comfort. Give us a call today at 618-416-0111.

6 Common Furnace Smells and What They Mean

If your furnace stinks while heating, it’s trying to tell you something’s amiss. To address this, we’ve created a list of the top six furnace smells, what triggers them and how you can correct them.

You’ll also learn which problems you can fix yourself, and which ones require an HVAC technician. When you need a technician, Home Heating & Cooling is here to help you.

1. Burning Smell from Furnace

What Causes It: Dusty Furnace

If your furnace smells like burning, it’s probably happening when you switch on your furnace for the first time in the autumn. Like other appliances in your house, your furnace gets dirty over time. This dust burns off when you switch on the heat, causing the burning dust smell from your furnace. This smell is normal and isn’t something to be worried about.

2. Furnace Smells Like Burning Plastic

What Causes It: Electrical Issue

If your furnace smells like burning plastic or burning rubber, it might have an electrical problem. This smell of burning can be triggered by melting plastic wire casing, which is a safety hazard. If you’re noticing this odor, switch off your heating system right away and call Home Heating & Cooling at 618-416-0111 for furnace repair.

What Causes It: Overheated Motor or Cracked Heat Exchanger

An electrical burning smell could also mean your furnace motor is overheated or the heat exchanger is cracked. The heat exchanger properly exhausts carbon monoxide that’s normally produced during the combustion process.

If it cracks, carbon monoxide can get into your home. This invisible gas is deadly in large amounts. So, it’s important to have an HVAC pro do annual furnace maintenance and have functioning carbon monoxide detectors.

Other signs of a cracked heat exchanger include:

3. Gas Smell from Furnace

It’s typical for your heating system to let off a small amount of gas when it turns on, so you might experience a gas smell from your furnace. But it’s not normal to be smelling natural gas or rotten eggs throughout your home on a day-to-day basis.

What Causes It: Gas Leak

If your furnace smells like gas continuously, turn it off. If you know where your gas supply shutoff is, switch that off too. Then contact the gas company and Home Heating & Cooling for help, if you're in or near O'Fallon, IL.

4. Furnace Smells Like Car Exhaust

If your furnace smells like car exhaust or smoke, shut it off as soon as possible and let fresh air into your home. Your furnace uses an exhaust pipe to release combustion gases. If the pipe is blocked, the gases will flow back into your house.

What Causes It: Blocked Exhaust Pipe

If your heating system is high efficiency, it will have a white PVAC exhaust pipe on the side of your house. This pipe can get clogged by snow or birds, so be sure to regularly check that it’s clear.

5. Furnace Smells Like Sewer

If your furnace smells like sewer, or rotten eggs, you’ll want to ensure you don’t have a gas leak. If you don’t, the issue could be with your sewer lines and not your furnace. This is particularly true if it’s been very dry recently.

What Causes It: Dry Sewer Trap or Sewer Leak

If you think your sewer trap is dried out, you can try dumping some water down the floor drain in your basement. If that doesn’t fix the problem, you might have a sewer leak, so you’ll want to call a company that does sewer line repair.

6. Furnace Smells Musty

Sometimes you'll notice a bad smell from furnace exhaust. If your furnace smells musty, mold has likely been growing in it for some time.

What Causes It: Dirty Ductwork

Your furnace utilizes air ducts to spread warm air across your house. Mold can develop in the ductwork as time passes, especially if your home is too humid. You can eliminate the mold by having a Home Heating & Cooling HVAC technician do air duct cleaning.

You can keep your home’s humidity in check by:

Let Our Experts Handle Your Furnace Repair in O’Fallon

Troubleshooting your heating and cooling system on your own is hard. Your comfort is our top priority at Home Heating & Cooling, so our professionals are here to help you when you need us. When you need furnace repair in O’Fallon that you can depend on, contact us at 618-416-0111.