What is Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning System – How Does it Work?

An HVAC system regulates your home’s air ventilation, improves air quality, manages humidity, replenishes oxygen levels, and keeps your home warm or cold, depending on what you want. It provides ventilation, heating, and air conditioning from a single unit, and allows you to adjust your room’s temperature. Although a few people may feel that an HVAC system involves a complicated set of operations; in reality, it’s a combination of a duct system, thermostat, furnace, and air conditioner.

Air ventilation with HVAC system

Your HVAC system has three distribution points to circulate cold or hot air in your house.

• Forced air system – It distributes temperature-controlled air from metal ducts with the help of a blower.

• Radiant system – This works similarly to a radiator by distributing heat in your room from underneath the floor.

• Gravity system – A gravity system works from the basement and follows the principle that says cold air sinks and hot air rises. The HVAC system waits till the air gets heated, then it forces the air to rise and allows the cold air to sink down.

How does the HVAC system work?

An HVAC system has three essential elements:

• A furnace that acts as the source of warm air and an air conditioner that distributes cold air.

• Pipes or ducts that help with air distribution.

• A thermostat or a control unit that regulates the entire system.

A centralized HVAC system can distribute both cold and warm air through its ducts and pipes, while the thermostat regulates the temperature. The heat pump inside the HVAC system contains a climate control unit, ready to cool or heat the air according to your needs. During winter, you can turn the thermostat up, thus allowing the furnace to consume gas and generate heat in the HVAC system that the ducts later distribute in different corners of a room.

On the other hand, during summers, you can turn the thermostat down to allow the cooling unit to use the refrigerant gas in the air conditioner to cool the air inside and distribute it through the ducts whenever you switch on the AC.

Different elements of your HVAC system

Your HVAC unit contains four elements that need to work in tandem to make the system run smoothly.

• Furnace – The furnace runs on oil or natural gas, and is responsible for heating air according to the temperature indicated by the thermostat. It has a heat exchanger that distributes warm air. HVAC installers usually set up the furnace in your home’s attic or basement.

• Air conditioning unit – This unit uses refrigerant gas and electricity to cool the air. It traps hot air from your room, converts it into the cold air, and ejects the cold air through the air ducts. The installation expert will install your air conditioning unit just outside your home and not in the basement or attic.

• Thermostat – Consider the thermostat as your HVAC system’s brain. It’s that element in the system that allows you to regulate the temperature of the HVAC system. You can increase the warmth of the room by notching up the heat or make the room cold by turning the temperature down. The thermostat is the piece of the puzzle that controls the temperature and commands the furnace or air conditioning unit to send hot or cold air into your room.

• Ductwork – It transports hot or cold air into your house. The installation team may set up new ductworks if you don’t already have them.

Different cities experience extreme weather conditions throughout the year, making it essential to own an HVAC system. Invest in a high-quality system to ensure it works flawlessly both during summer and winter.