What does Car Air Conditioning / vehicle air-conditioning actually do?

Modern vehicles come with all sorts of top end interior gadgets from the latest Bose surround sound to high end car electrics and sat-navs etc.

One feature that we all tend to make use of while we’re on the road is a vehicle’s air conditioning system. While winding the windows down may allow air to run through your vehicle, it also lets everything else in the atmosphere outside of the car in too!

Instead of letting in all those road bugs, flies, insects and air pollution, Air conditioning allows cooled air to circulate your car or vehicle without these interfering nasties.

Here’s everything that you could possibly need to know about your car air conditioning / vehicle air-conditioning unit!

So what does your  Car Air Conditioning / vehicle air-conditioning do?

Now, when we think of car air conditioning / vehicle air conditioning systems, we naturally think of how they cool the air in the vehicle.    Why this is one of the main reasons for having it they are much more.

In short they quite literally “condition” the air, reducing moisture in the air and consequently too. The unit’s four main principles are evaporation, condensation, compression, and expansion.

So How Does it Work?

Most air conditioning systems work in the same way, whether they’re installed in a home, an office, supermarket of your car or motor vehicle.   Your air conditioning system is connected by a series of flexible hoses and hard tubes

There are five main components that this system connects – the evaporator, condenser, the compressor, receiver-dryer, and expansion valve,

A refrigerant then flows around the whole system once the engine is on, evaporating at a low temperature, and then condensing again at a high pressure.

When it condenses, it takes heat away from the vehicle and the blower fans pass cold air throughout the vehicle, cooling the air inside.

Downsides of car air conditioning

One of the main downsides to having air con is that the system takes quite a lot of energy to work.  This means that you will burn more petrol or diesel when your air con is switched on.   Having said that, in this hot and sticky summer I would definitely prefer to have it on rather than not!