Can Outside Temperature Affect Central Air Conditioning Unit
Houston faces pretty extreme summers, with lingering high temperatures through most of the fall. When the temperatures outside rise to the high 90s and beyond, undersized, outdated, and less efficient air conditioning units may experience trouble cooling the air inside of your space. The system air conditioners use to cool air involves a circulation of refrigerant. Refrigerant is a fluid designed to vaporize and turn warm air into cool air. When the air becomes warmer, your air conditioner takes more energy to transform the temperature of the air. Air-conditioners work harder as outside temperatures climb because the air-conditioning cycle requires the outside temps to be lower than the heat being released from the unit. The Air-Conditioning Cycle Air conditioners are constantly working to deliver your space cool air. This is done through the air conditioning cycle. This continuous cycle involves multiple steps including, compression, condensation, expansion, and evaporation. Outside of your home, in the warm humid Houston climate, your air conditioner is hard at work compressing the refrigerant, causing the temperature to rise. The large fan on your unit is used to blow air across your air conditioning unit’s coils, which contain the heated refrigerant. Whenever the air outside is cooler than the fluid, heat energy flows from the refrigerant to the outside air. When the high-temperature gaseous refrigerant gives up energy, it turns back into a liquid. The liquid then goes through an expander, which transforms the refrigerant to a low-temperature, liquid. As this cooled down liquid makes its way into your home, another fan blows inside air across the coils, converting it into a vapor that cools your home. How Outside Temperature Affects Your AC The amount of heat and the rate at which it transfers depends upon the temperature difference between the outside air […]
