Refrigeration (AC) Theory
Air conditioning used to be an item for the big and expensive houses. Now it’s unusual for the house not to be air conditioned (here in Massachusetts anyways). Some folks may be confused with the terms refrigeration versus air conditioning.
Most people out there want to know how efficient a heating or cooling system is before they spend their hard earned dollar. This makes good fiscal sense to me too. Here is what the average consumer doesn’t know: Is the air conditioner charged properly? If it’s charged correctly you just got what you paid for. If it’s over charged or undercharged, you’ve wasted some cash on your new AC system. When you ask your HVAC contractor, he’ll most likely say, “Oh yes, Mrs. Smith, I just added 11 ounces of refrigerant, you’re all set.” I’m here to say you’ll never know, until now.
At Wilson Services the owner of the company and our start-up/ Service Technician has in their possession a new tool called the Honeywell Service Assistant. It basically is a computer driven gage set. Why do we need a computerized gage set when the average tool will work just fine? The tool deciphers a dozen technical inputs simultaneously and calculates the change in enthalpy. If there’s too much refrigerant (you may use the word Freon, or Puron), the compressor will live a short life. If there’s not enough refrigerant, you’re not getting all the energy from the air conditioner you’re paying for, and the compressor may overheat. Click here if you want a brief explanation on how the refrigeration process happens.
You might wonder why it’s so difficult to get the charge correct. it’s actually not very complicated, but most technicians are too busy to carefully observe all the technical inputs mentioned above. The Service Assistant helps us become better technicians while not spending too much valuable time on a given air conditioner. A win-win. We do a good job and you don’t have to pay more for added diagnostic time. Massachusetts utility companies (not all of them, but most) even have a new program that encourages the use of this tool.
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