Refrigerant looks like WATER:
If you look through a "sight-glass" into a container of refrigerant, you will see a liquid or a liquid and some vapor that looks just like water--clear and fluid. Very different from water, though, if you open the container, the refrigerant will zip off into space as a vapor. It does this for two reasons: 1. It is under pressure. 2. It boils at any temperature above MINUS 38°F. unless it is kept in a sealed container, thus, it boils instantly and vaporizes as soon as it is not under pressure.
Reducing the pressure of refrigerant will cause it to absorb a lot of heat:
If you were to deliberately spill some refrigerant on the floor, it would immediately vaporize, but in doing so it would absorb a lot of heat from that spot in the floor and the surrounding air. The floor would become cold.
If you flow refrigerant through a small tube and then through an orifice into another tube, but much larger, then the refrigerant would vaporize (boil) and absorb a lot of heat (the tube would feel cold). Did you ever place your thumb over a water hose and try to seal off the end from the flowing water and you got a fine mist that sprayed into the air? Remember how cold it felt and how little of it hit the ground. It vaporized and as it did, it absorbed heat from the surrounding air. This is what refrigerants do inside the tubing of the evaporator coils as air blows over it.
If you pump-up refrigerant to a higher pressure, it gets HOT:
If pressure increases, temperature increases. If your compressor raises the pressure of the refrigerant to 275 pounds inside the condenser coils, the tubing will get HOT because the temperature of the refrigerant rises with pressure. The compressor as well adds a lot of heat because it uses a motor and mechanical pressure to make the refrigerant pressurize. But we have to pressurize it to get to flow through the tubing at a great pressure so we can orifice it and reduce the pressure in the evaporator to get the "cooling effect". Then it absorbs a lot of heat from inside the room and the compressor "sucks" it back to start the cycle again.
by Ron Walker
If you look through a "sight-glass" into a container of refrigerant, you will see a liquid or a liquid and some vapor that looks just like water--clear and fluid. Very different from water, though, if you open the container, the refrigerant will zip off into space as a vapor. It does this for two reasons: 1. It is under pressure. 2. It boils at any temperature above MINUS 38°F. unless it is kept in a sealed container, thus, it boils instantly and vaporizes as soon as it is not under pressure.
Reducing the pressure of refrigerant will cause it to absorb a lot of heat:
If you were to deliberately spill some refrigerant on the floor, it would immediately vaporize, but in doing so it would absorb a lot of heat from that spot in the floor and the surrounding air. The floor would become cold.
If you flow refrigerant through a small tube and then through an orifice into another tube, but much larger, then the refrigerant would vaporize (boil) and absorb a lot of heat (the tube would feel cold). Did you ever place your thumb over a water hose and try to seal off the end from the flowing water and you got a fine mist that sprayed into the air? Remember how cold it felt and how little of it hit the ground. It vaporized and as it did, it absorbed heat from the surrounding air. This is what refrigerants do inside the tubing of the evaporator coils as air blows over it.
If you pump-up refrigerant to a higher pressure, it gets HOT:
If pressure increases, temperature increases. If your compressor raises the pressure of the refrigerant to 275 pounds inside the condenser coils, the tubing will get HOT because the temperature of the refrigerant rises with pressure. The compressor as well adds a lot of heat because it uses a motor and mechanical pressure to make the refrigerant pressurize. But we have to pressurize it to get to flow through the tubing at a great pressure so we can orifice it and reduce the pressure in the evaporator to get the "cooling effect". Then it absorbs a lot of heat from inside the room and the compressor "sucks" it back to start the cycle again.
by Ron Walker