The Refrigeration Cycle - In Layman terms.... hopefully... hehehehe :DDDD

One of my ex-colleagues from Trane mentioned to make entries from my blog as non-technical as possible. Immediately upon reading the comment on my Facebook post, I started pondering about what to write that could possibly be written in Layman terms. After a day or so thinking about it, still I didn’t have a topic in mind.

However, last Saturday, when my boss and I had a meeting with an owner of a mall in Bacolod City; during the drive from the hotel to the meeting location, I began to think again what could be an interesting topic that could fit what my ex-colleague described then suddenly I found it! While I was discussing with my boss the details of the size of the equipment for the mall it came to me: what about the refrigeration cycle???

At first you might react

“OMG, WTF is a refrigeration cycle! Non-technical? Are you kidding me??? F@$ck you!”

but I just want you to know that the intent here is not to find a “non technical” topic but rather make a technical topic non technical that even an elementary school student would understand. If ever you've read this blog entry and still you find it hard to understand, then please email me about it and I will do my best to explain it again to you in another way.

To recall one of the topics during the training I had with Trane in the US, we were taught that different people learn differently and that there are three major paths on how people take information in and please allow me to enumerate those first:

1. A person learns most effectively by sight
2. A person learns most effectively by sound
3. A person learns most effectively by touch

I understand that in order for one to effectively convey information to an audience, one must either:

1. Display all of the learning techniques above or

2. Know first know how the target audience effectively takes in information then proceed with whatever fits their learning patterns.

Now, since the platform to which I do this is on the internet, the only possible avenues I have would be sight and sound; since I am new to this blogging world, please allow me to apologize because as of the moment I could not add any “sound” driven tool and the only thing I have would be visual.

Now, enough said, Let’s get it on!!!!!!!

First we go back to our elementary school days and talk about the properties of a matter. In school we were taught that there are three different phases of a matter namely solid, liquid and gas. Furthermore, we were also taught about the arrangements of the so called “atoms/particles” in each of these phases... I know that there are other types like plasma and whatnot but let’s just make it simple and deal with this three only.

For all you visual learners: Hello!

I won’t explain much of this anymore since we all know this already.

Anyhow, now we go to the main topic:

REFRIGERATION CYCLE

First we look at the components one by one and I will try to explain it piece by piece the simplest I way I could.

A. EVAPORATOR

The function of this component is as what the name defines; to evaporate. The liquid refrigerant in the evaporator boil and turn in to gas because it absorbs heat from whatever source it is intended for.

Now, since all of that liquid turned into gas then it would be a waste if we just let that be right? So, how do we turn it back to liquid so that we could use it over and over again?

Then here we go to the purpose of the “refrigeration cycle”. Since changing phases of matter couldn’t be done naturally in a controlled setup as it happens only naturally (snow, water, hail, etc.) then the purpose of the cycle is to make it happen so that we can control and manage it.

Going back to the question “how do we turn the gas back into liquid so that we could use it again and again?”, we look back to the states of matter we discussed earlier.

Since, at gaseous form, the particles/atoms are far apart from each other, then in order get it back to liquid then we have to find a way to move it closer right? In more simple terms, since the dots are separated as shown above in gaseous form, we then have to do move the dots closer so that it would be arranged as what is shown in liquid form.

There it is then, in order for us to move the atoms/particles closer, we then need to have another component – the main component to make the magic happen:

B. THE COMPRESSOR

Now, since there are different types of compressors, I’ll just show it to you so that you can classify it by sight.

Just know that the main purpose of this component is to move the particles/atoms of the refrigerant closer together so that it could be turned back into liquid easily. Coincidentally, since the process of compression increases the pressure of whatever gas it is compressing then this component also adds heat to the refrigerant increasing its temperature as well.

Think about this for a while, since were done with the first two parts then let’s summarize first what happened to the refrigerant:

a. The refrigerant boiled in the evaporator increasing its temperature.

b. The refrigerant was compressed in the compressor increasing its pressure and temperature.

In a sense, what we did to the refrigerant on the first two components is that we added heat and increased its pressure and thus in order for us to get it back to the liquid form then the next components must:

a. Decrease the temperature

b. Decrease the pressure and temperature

C. CONDENSER

This is basically the same as the evaporator but instead of adding heat to the refrigerant, its purpose is to take away heat from the refrigerant (the heat we added in the evaporator and compressor). This component is actually where the magic happens and here we find out that the refrigerant finally goes back to liquid as what we’ve intended for in the first place. Since we’re transferring heat, then where does it go? Well, it depends on what type of machine you have. With a water cooled system then it’s transferred to the cooling tower and with an air-cooled system then as what the name implies it is transferred to the air.

Ok so, are we done? Did we finish the job? It’s back to liquid right?

Well, sad to say, not yet!

We discussed earlier that after the evaporator and compressor we need to do two things but this time lets expand what it further:

In order for us to use the refrigerant over and over again and fulfil the cycle’s purpose, after the evaporator and compressor, we need to:

a. Decrease the temperature to the point we can turn it back to liquid.

b. Decrease the pressure and temperature so that we could re-use it.

Ok, so actually, when the refrigerant is inside the condenser we’ve accomplished item a. already. How do we accomplish item b. then?

Now we move to the last component of the basic refrigeration cycle:

D. THE EXPANSION/METERING DEVICE

Basically, before this it has been explained already but here it is again just in case:

The job of this final component is to decrease the pressure and temperature so that we could re-use it. One other function of this is that this final component also acts as a “metering device” so that it could control how much refrigerant will go into the evaporator. Think of this device as the guard/bouncer at a dance club that controls how much people goes into the club depending on how many people the management wants the club to be filled of.

WOW that’s a relief, were done!

Before I say goodbye, let me show you how the schematic diagram of this system is drawn for all you visual people here.

Well, I hope you’ve enjoyed this entry and I just want you to know that I did my best to make this as simple as possible. Please email me at coolmoako@blogspot.com should you have any questions/clarifications or whatever it is that you would want to communicate with me about and I’ll find time to respond to your mail/s.