Does an Air Conditioner Work Without Gas?

Air Handler

• In the air handler portion of an air conditioning system, indoor air is pulled in through a filter. The air is then passed over copper coils filled with gaseous refrigerant. These coils absorb the heat in the air, and warm up the gas. As the gas warms, it becomes a liquid, and is pumped outside the home to the condenser.

Condenser

• The liquid refrigerant, carrying with it heat from inside the home, is pumped through another set of copper coils, this time outside the home. A large fan blows air across these coils, cooling them and dispersing the heat absorbed by the refrigerant inside the home. As the refrigerant cools, it returns to its gaseous state.

Compressor

• Before returning back in to the home, the now-cooled refrigerant is pumped through a compressor. The compressor pressurizes the refrigerant, further reducing its temperature. The high pressure refrigerant travels back in to the home, where it courses through the air handler's coils, ready to absorb more heat from indoor air.

Low Refrigerant

• Without refrigerant, a central air conditioner is little more than a large cycling fan, pulling in air from the intakes and blowing it back out through the air registers. Along the way, the air travels through duct work in your attic, and likely increases in temperature. Due to this, an air conditioner without any refrigerant gas will not function. Many air conditioners have pressure switches in their system that shut down the unit if the level of refrigerant gas falls below a certain point.