All of Your HVAC Components Work Together

Your home’s HVAC system is a hard worker, and it relies on every part working together as it should. It’s helpful to see how everything ties together in order to understand how to avoid problems. Here is a brief explanation of how HVAC system components work together to keep your home comfortable.

Heating

Using a gas furnace as an example, when the heating cycle begins, the pilot light ignites several burners. This heat travels to a heat exchanger, which transfers this heat into a flow of air.

Air Circulation

The blower fan forces this heated air into your home’s ductwork where it travels through the duct network and out of the registers to warm your home.

Meanwhile, return air vents pull stale air out of all rooms. The air is then filtered and recycled back through return air ducts to the furnace to be reheated. Return air ducts help keep pressure in the home balanced.

Air Conditioning

In central air conditioning systems, the evaporator unit is installed with the furnace and they both use the same blower. Instead of heating air, your air conditioner removes heat using refrigerant. Since heat always transfers to cooler surfaces, when air flows over the evaporator coils, the heat from the air transfers into the colder refrigerant. The resulting cooled air is then forced into the ductwork by the blower fan.

When Things Go Wrong

Each component on the system is important for your comfort. If the burners don’t ignite, no air will be heated. If the evaporator coils are dirty or develop ice, air won’t be cooled sufficiently. If the blower fan stops working, there is no way for the heat or cooled air to get into the ductwork, and if the ductwork is poorly designed, too large, leaky, or poorly insulated, then much of the heated or cooled air will be lost as the air travels to your home’s interior. All parts of the system need to be maintained and in balance with the other parts.

To learn more about your home’s HVAC system components, please contact us at C.R. Wolfe Heating & Air Conditioning.

Our goal is to help educate our customers in Middletown, New York about energy and home comfort issues (specific to HVAC systems). For more information about HVAC components and other HVAC topics, download our free Home Comfort Guide or call us at 845-367-4482.

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