New Hampshire may garner more outsider attention for reports of our brutal winters than we do for the heat of our summer seasons, but that does not mean that we don’t have to worry about uncomfortably hot days when summer does arrive. Once the season gets underway, you’ll be reminded right away of the fact that your air conditioning system is every bit as important as your home heating system is. With that in mind, it should be clear that any problems with your air conditioning system really must be resolved promptly.
Some problems are fairly easy to spot. Some are not. One of the trickiest to spot also happens to be one of the more serious problems that you can encounter. That is a refrigerant leak. If your air conditioning system is leaking refrigerant, you can count on a number of potentially serious issues to develop. That is why we want to help you learn to spot signs of a refrigerant leak in your home cooling system. If you suspect a problem, contact us for air conditioning repair in Alstead, NH.
What Does the Refrigerant in My System Do?
Your air conditioner does not run on refrigerant the way that a car runs on gasoline. It is not a fuel source, and it is never actually consumed by your air conditioning system. It is a heat transfer fluid that is capable of changing its physical states quite easily, which makes it very good at its job. It is contained in a closed loop, where it is recycled throughout the system over and over.
In the indoor unit of your air conditioning system is the evaporator coil. This is the point at which refrigerant is evaporated in the system—we never said it was a very creative name for the component. As refrigerant evaporates, it is able to draw heat out of the air passing over the coil. That cooled air is then sent back into your living space, while the warmed refrigerant heads out to the condenser. There, it is condensed and its heat is released into the air outside.
So Why Is My Refrigerant Low?
As we mentioned above, your air conditioner does not consume refrigerant. Instead, it recycles it over and over and again. That means that a low refrigerant charge always suggests a problem. It may be that your system was insufficiently charged to begin with (highly, highly unlikely when you work with us, of course).
If that is not the case, then you have a leak. A leak may develop in the refrigerant lines themselves, or in the coils. You may notice that your system is struggling to cool your home as effectively as it usually does, or that there is ice developing on the refrigerant lines or the coil. Whatever the case, continuing to run an air conditioner that is low on refrigerant is a surefire way to drive up energy costs while potentially doing serious damage to your system—even effectively destroying the compressor!
Call HB Energy Solutions for all your energy needs. HB Energy Solutions delivers peace of mind.
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