HVAC is an acronym for heating, ventilation, and air conditioning. It's main purpose is to heat air in the winter to warm our homes and to create cold air to keep our homes cool and comfortable in the summer. These systems take the air from outside, cool or heat that air, and send it through our home. Because of this, an HVAC system regularly ventilates your home and even filters the air before it comes in.
Let's start with the air conditioning part of your HVAC system. The AC system is split into two areas. The "cool side" is found indoors (typically in the attic or basement) and contains the expansion valve and cooling coils. The air handler uses a fan to distribute warm air over the chilled coils and send the cooled air into your home. The "hot side" is the condensing unit that is found outside of your home. The condenser takes any air that is not cooled and releases it to the outside. The expansion valve sits between the evaporator and condenser and monitors how much refrigerant is going into the evaporator. Both the condenser and the expansion valve (aka. the "cool side") are found inside your home such as in the attic or basement typically right by the furnace. The compressor is what pressurizes the refrigerant gas back into a liquid. The process of the refrigerant changing back and forth from a liquid to a gas is what absorbs heat and humidity from the warm air. All of this is conveniently controlled by your thermostat in your house.
Now that you understand the main components and their locations, let's take a closer look at the cooling process. The cooling process is a cycle and we'll start at the outdoor unit which is called the compressor. The compressor pressurizes the freon liquid into a gas. The gas moves through the coils in the outdoor unit and loses heat. As the gas cools it begins to condense back into a hot liquid that then flows into the copper tubing of the indoor unit. As the hot, liquid freon is allowed to expand it turns back into a cold gas. This cool gas flowing through the coils cools the air passing over them. This cold air is what you feel coming out of the vents from your ductwork. This process also removes access moisture from the air since cool air does not hold moisture the way warm air can. The moisture actually condenses on coils and drips into a drain. The freon liquid that becomes warm again then is cycled back to the outside condenser to begin the cycle again. The heating system works the same way only the concept is reversed.
Having an overall understanding of your HVAC system will help you to understand the importance of maintenance and the reasoning behind any repairs you may encounter.
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