The air filter is the customer’s only job pertaining to the air conditioning system. Having a dirty filter can cause your system to freeze up, due to the restriction of airflow. It also important to understand what a MERV rating is, also defined in this glossary.

Pure Air recommends a whole house media filtration system if air quality is of the utmost importance to the customer. These filter systems are 4-5 inches thick as opposed to the typical 1 inch filter in the ceiling or side wall return vent. They are installed at the air handler and act as a whole house filter due to the fact that they filter every bit of air entering the air handler. They also can be changed either once a year or once every two years. If you do plan on using a 1 inch filter, please change it regularly and use a pleated filter. In the summer a 1 inch pleated filter should be changed at least once every three months.

The air handler is the inside part of a split system. It is commonly known as a furnace up north. It consists of a blower motor, evaporator coil, drain pan, electronics to signal the outdoor unit, and heater. It is also heavily insulated for efficiency purposes. The air handler exchanges all of the air inside of your home. It’s cleanliness is essential to the air quality in your home.

This is a motor inside inside the air handler. It moves the air from inside of your home across the evaporator coil while cooling, or the heater while heating. This motor spins a blower wheel which effectively moves the air. If a blower motor fails, it will cause the evaporator coil to freeze up. This is simply because the coil gets much colder than it would with the blower motor working.

A capacitor is a typically cylindrical device which stores power to start the motors on your air conditioning system. Many times in South Florida a power surge can cause the capacitor to fail. This requires replacement of the capacitor. Also, there are two types of capacitors, run and start.

A start capacitor is typically used to start a compressor that can not start by itself. Usually this is a sign that the compressor is getting to the end of its useful life. Capacitors come in many sizes and are rated in microfarads. Pure Air can test these capacitors if there is a question on if it is operable or not on any maintenance or service call. These are tested with an amp meter after the capacitor is disconnected from the system.

Cubic feet per minute. Simply put, this is the measurement of how much air is able to get through a piece of ductwork.

Pure Air takes the time to calculate this on any air conditioning system installation or ductwork changeout. It is very important that your air handler and ductwork work in harmony, and prevent system failure and service calls. Any particular system will call for a different amount of CFM, which sometimes can be set up at the air handler to work with the duct system.

These boards are typically inside of the air handler. On the higher end systems they are also outside in the condensing unit. They take the place of relays and timers, ultimately controlling the sequence of events that your system goes through to operate properly. They can also be damaged by power surges, but for the most part are pretty reliable.

This is typically regarded as the heart of the air conditioning system. It simply compresses the refrigerant from a gas to a liquid. The refrigerant comes back to the compressor as a gas from the evaporator coil, and is sent back to this coil as a liquid. The compressor is the only part that creates the cycle of refrigerant necessary to cool your home.

This is the coil located around the compressor on the outside unit. It allows the refrigerant to go from a hot gas to a hot liquid before the refrigerant is sent pack to the air handler.

Pure Air sells the Trane product due to the fact that they have a Spine Fin coil that stands up 30% better to the salty air than any other manufacturer. The condenser coil being intact has a major factor on the air conditioning systems efficiency. They will leak if they get too corroded or develop a bad connection or crack.

Located in the outside condensing unit, this motor allows air to move across the outside condensing coil. Without it, your home will not cool. The air moving across the coil allows the refrigerant to go from a hot gas to a liquid.

This is the outdoor unit on an air conditioning split system. Split system due to the fact that there is the air handler inside, the condenser outside.

This is the gateway for the outdoor unit to receive high voltage. Low voltage is sent from the air handler after it has gotten the signal from the thermostat to turn on and cool. Once the low voltage reaches the contactor, a magnet pulls the contactor points in allowing the flow of high voltage to the outside unit motors and compressor. Ants can be fond of these contractor points, and also power surges can cause them to fail.

This is a required safety feature for both the air handler and the condenser. It allows the technician to stop the flow of high voltage to the units in order to safely work on them. It can be either a breaker to turn off or a piece that can be pulled out of the disconnect box. Pure Air technicians are instructed to always check the disconnect to ensure good connections.

This is the PVC piping that allows the water out of the drain pan inside of the air handler to leave the house. It should be insulated coming out of the air handler due to the temperature of the condensate or water leaving the air handler. It is a major part of any Pure Air maintenance and is vacuumed clean to prevent buildup between services.

This pan is under the evaporator coil inside of the air handler. It is necessary to catch the water and direct it to the drain line and out of the home. Pure Air adds condensate tablets to every drain pan on a maintenance. These tablets prevent algae from forming in the drain line between services.

Typical motors must have a rotating magnetic field in order for the motor to turn. This rotation can be caused by three different methods: Three phase AC power, single phase power, or electro- mechanical commutated power. There are some problems you may hit with these types of motors however.

Three phase AC power has a high, constant voltage making it difficult to control the speed at which it is going. The power source is also a bit difficult to find. Single phase power has all of the same problems as three phase, but with the added troubles of phase shifting. This produces an imperfect rotating field and can cause substantial loss in the motor. Most phase – shifting methods have a weak starting torque as well.

An electro – mechanical commutated motor solves most of these problems. It has a wide – range speed control and a high starting torque. The cons of this kind of motor are due to the high friction and wear problems causing it to need repairs more often than others.

With electronic commutation most of these problems are solved. Power is turned on and off with semi – conductor switches, also called transistors or electronic switches. Signals from the switches are pulsed to the motor based on a set timer. By playing around with the timing and duration of the pulses you can accomplish speed control and maintain a high torque at the beginning over a broad speed range.

Although the title Electronically Commutated Motors can be applied to many kinds of motors, the term ECM is usually reserved for small variable speed motors that operate from a single phase power source and have an electronic controller in or on the motor.

Now that you understand the difference between an ECM motor and other traditional motors I will describe in my next post how ECM motors apply to the HVAC field.

This is the coil located in the inside air handler. It gets cold and sweats. It allows you air conditioning system to change the air from warm to cool in your home.

Pure Air is particularly fond of Trane air handler units due to the fact that the evaporator coils are all aluminum. In other manufacturer’s air handler is a coil made of different metals such as copper, aluminum, and galvanized steel. This is a recipe for formicary corrosion causing premature failure due to leaks or restrictions. Trane coils will not corrode, increasing their dependability dramatically.

A hot topic lately due to all of the issues many manufacturers have had with their copper, aluminum, steel evaporator coils. This only occurs win evaporator coil made with copper based alloys. It is caused by a chemical reaction that includes oxygen, water, and organic acid. Pure Air made the switch from Rheem to Trane a few years ago mainly due to what I could foresee from years in the field.

A typical system in South Florida has an electric resistant heater inside of the air handler. This works much like a large toaster oven and air is passed through it before re entering the home. Although it is not the most efficient method of heating, we use the heat so little here that we should not be spending more money for a Heat Pump system.

This system could be thousands of dollars more expensive than the typical Split System. Electric heaters are also very dependable.

Minimum Efficiency Reporting Value. This corresponds to you systems air filters. The higher the Merv rating, the finer the filtration, and the fewer dust particles and contaminants can pass through the filter. Pure Air recommends that the customer buys the highest rated filter they can reasonably afford. A higher Merv rating insures that your air handler can stay cleaner longer, resulting in better air quality inside of your home. Pure Air also has an agreement with FilterFetch.com allowing its customers to log in with a company and filter code, making the reorder much easier with shipping to the home.

This is an air conditioning system typically found on a manufactured home or very early CBS block or wood framed home. They are completely outside the home and have duct work connecting to them through the homes exterior wall. Often they were used on homes with little or no attic space for the air handler and most likely no garage.

This switch is located in the outside unit. There are two types, high and low pressure switches. They allow your system to ensure that while it is running the pressures are where they should be inside that switches perimeters. If they are not, the switch will stop the operation of the system, protecting it from further damage caused by high or low pressures.

This is defined as a chemical that transfers heat. The home air conditioning system uses either R-22 or R-410a. It is important to note that the federal government halted the production of units that contain R-22 on January 1st, 2010. This is due to the fact that R-22 has chlorofluorocarbons that when released into the atmosphere, deplete the ozone layer. The newer R-410a does not deplete the ozone layer and is the only refrigerant used in new systems.

Pure Air is very environmentally conscious and reclaims and recycles all refrigerant from replacements and service repairs, and have holding tanks on site.

Seasonal Energy Efficiency Rating. The higher the SEER rating, the more efficient an air conditioning system is. Currently 14 SEER is the lowest available for purchase. Florida Power and Light also gives a $150 rebate on systems 16-17.99 SEER installed on a single family detached residential home. Pure Air is one of five companies in Naples Florida that has the ability to process these rebates.

This is an air conditioning system that consists of an indoor(air handler) and outdoor unit(condenser). It is the most efficient system and can range up to 21 SEER. Both are pictured below. Read a more in depth article about split systems in my blog.

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This is the control found inside your home that allows you to regulate the temperature of the air inside your home. There are a variety of thermostats available, from non-programmable to Wifi enabled. Pure Air offers a WiFi thermostat that allows you to see the temperature and humidity inside of your home from thousands of mile away. It also lets you raise or lower the temperature through an app on your preferred device or desktop computer.

This is a metering device found next to the evaporator coil inside the air handler. It controls the flow of refrigerant allowed to enter the evaporator coil. Using a sensing bulb, it will adjust the flow based on the temperature of the coil. It is necessary in high efficiency systems especially and allows for optimal efficiency.

These lights can serve a couple of purposes based on the configuration. A basic single bulb ultraviolet light can shine UV-C light between 100 and 280 nanometers. This placed on the backside of an evaporator coil can prevent microbial growth on the coil. There are also air purifying systems that use this light along with a carbon and titanium matrix to create a photocatalytic reaction, killing any molecules or VOCs coming through the systems air. Pure Air are experts at educating and helping the customer select the perfect fit for them.

Volatile Organic Compounds. Anything from a smell to the flu virus is made up of molecules. These are considered VOCs. UV Lights can help combat these.