Auto AC Repair Sacramento
Auto AC Repair made affordable!
Spring is here and Summer is just around the corner! Now is the time to get your AC ready for the days ahead with the temperatues in the 80's, 90's and even triple-digits!
Your car's air conditioning system works the same way as the refrigerator in your home; it removes heat and humidity from inside the enclosed space and replaces it with cold air.
Your car's ac unit includes the following components:
- The Compressor, which first compresses the refrigerant and then circulates it throughout the system.
- The Refrigerant, (in recent-model autos, named R-134, while older cars use R-12 Freon) that transfers heat. R-12 Freon has become more expensive and difficult to locate and requires a license to handle.
- The Condenser which changes the phase of the refrigerant and removes heat before expelling it from the car.
- An Expansion Valve (also known as an orifice tube). This is a nozzle that simultaneously reduces the pressure of the refrigerant liquid, regulates its flow, and atomizes it.
- An Evaporator which draws heat to the refrigerant, extracting heat from the air blown across the evaporator, passing cool air into the car.
- A Receiver or Dryer, that functions as a filter for the refrigerant and removes moisture and contaminants.
How the air conditioning process works:
The compressor component pressurizes the refrigerant and it is then transferred to the condensing coils (typically located in front of the radiator). The compression process heats the gas. The condenser then combines the additional heat with the heat the refrigerant already acquired in the evaporator and expels the heat to the air which is passing over it from outside the car. Once the refrigerant has cooled down to what is called its "saturation" temperature, it transitions from a gaseous state back into a liquid (this gives off a blast of heat called "latent heat of vaporization"). The liquid refrigerant then travels through the expansion valve into the evaporator coils inside of the car, and then loses the pressure that was created by the compressor. A certain amount of the liquid will change into a low-pressure gas as it cools the remaining coolant. Next this two-phase mixture enters the evaporator, and the liquid part of the refrigerant will absorb the heat from air moving across the coil and then be dissapated and evaporate. In the final stage, a blower pushes air across the cold evaporator to cool your car's interior.
