Explanation of the Refrigeration Cycle

Refrigeration is what is called a process. What the process does is to move hear from one area to another area. This type of process is done with items such as industrial freezers, air conditioning, heating pumps and also home refrigerators and cryogenics.

In order to have a refrigeration cycle you need to have what is commonly known as refrigerant. Refrigerant comes in fluid form and is one of the most important parts of the refrigeration process. The refrigerant continuously cycles through taking in a releasing heat energy in a certain space that is being used to cool something. There are a few different steps to the refrigeration process.

1. The compressor pressurizes the refrigerant in a very compressed state, then the refrigerant ends up being at a much hotter temperature. When it passes through the compressor it ends up in a very hot vapor. The compressor is commonly referred to as the heat of the process keeping it going at the correct rate of speed needed to keep things going.


2. The condenser is where the refrigerant travels to next. The part is in different spots in different units. For an air conditioner, the condenser can be found at the outside of the unit. For a refrigerator it is at the back of the unit. The condenser is easy to locate by looking for the coils that make it up. When the refrigerant moves through the coils it will give off heat. This will condense the refrigerant back into a liquid as it is cooling down again. An air conditioner has a fan that keeps the condenser cooling the refrigerant.


3. The expansion valve or also called the metering device is the next step to the process. The refrigerant is still moving on through and it has to pass through this before going back into the space that it needs to cool. This device turns the liquid into a vapor again. This helps to change the heat level quite a bit.


4. The final step in the process is for the refrigerant to go through the evaporator. The evaporator is simply another set of coils. The coils will line the inside walls of a refrigerator. The evaporator does the same job in an air conditioner as it does in a refrigerator. What it does is to absorb any excess heat in a units insides as the refrigerant is moving towards the compressor. For a larger area unlike an air conditioner there is a set of ducts and fans to help with cooling the larger-scale space.