While your heat pump may seem like a single unit, it’s truly the sum of many individual parts. Understanding the most important of these parts helps give you an idea of how to troubleshoot problems. Discover these four important parts of your Cutler Bay, FL, heat pump and how they function in your unit.
Compressor
The compressor is responsible for allowing your heat pump to vent heat. It compresses the refrigerant, transforming it into a hot gaseous vapor.
Compressors fail for many reasons, including running with too little refrigerant in the system. This is one of the components that service technicians test during routine maintenance.
Air Handler
The air handler controls the airflow through your system, allowing it to heat or cool your home. It contains the circulating fan, its motor and usually the air filter as well. Packaged systems often have a single indoor unit that includes the air handler and the refrigerant coil.
Reversing Valve
The beauty of heat pumps is that they will both heat and cool your home. The reversing valve is the small component that allows them to do this.
The valve itself is a slide that changes the alignment of refrigerant tubes. In one setting, it allows the compressed refrigerant to flow to the interior coils for heating. In the other setting, the high-pressure refrigerant flows outside for cooling.
Refrigerant Coils
The evaporator and condensing coils are the proper names for refrigerant coils in air conditioning units. In a heat pump, the operational mode determines which coil assumes which role. The condensing coil is the high-pressure side of the system, and the evaporator coil is the low side.
Keep your heat pump running reliably all year long by ensuring all of the parts are working properly. Call RCI Air Conditioning Company to schedule your heat pump repair today.
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