How Does an HVAC System Work?

A: Three things are happening at once — heat is being moved into the house, moved out of it, or simply circulated — and the thermostat decides which.

Cooling works by moving heat, not making cold. Refrigerant absorbs heat from the air passing over the indoor coil, carries it outside, and releases it at the condenser. Heating is either combustion — a furnace burning gas or, on a lot of rural McClain and Grady properties, propane, which needs different orifices than city gas — or a heat pump, which runs the refrigerant cycle backwards and pulls heat out of cold outdoor air. Either way, the blower pushes the conditioned air through the ductwork, and the return side pulls it back to start over.

What makes Oklahoma hard on all of this is that no part of it gets an off-season. A long punishing summer is followed by a heating season with real ice storms, and red-dirt dust loads the filter and condenser coil the entire time.

Any new split-system AC installed here has to meet 14.3 SEER2 under the DOE South region rules. Something not sounding right? Call 405-420-4895.