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What is HVAC?

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  • 3 min read

Air ventilation and cooling systems are an important part of modern architecture and form an essential part of our buildings. They come in all shapes, sizes and capacities and make for a controllable indoor environment.

In this article, we’re talking about HVACs, what are they and how do they work.

 Also read: How to control the fan speed on MSI?


What is an HVAC system?

HVAC stands for Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning. These systems provide heating and cooling and air quality control to anything from residential to commercial building to submarines. 

Starting with the heating elements, they generally refer to a furnace or a boiler. It might include a pipe system for carrying heat fluid if the system is working with a forced-air system.

These systems are becoming more and more popular with each new construction as they use fresh outdoor air to provide high-quality indoor air. This is done by the ventilation part of the system, which keeps replacing the indoor air continuously with fresh outdoor air after it has filtered out all the moisture, dust, smoke, any airborne bacteria, carbon dioxide and any other gases that might need to be removed. 

What is HVAC? How does it work?

The last bit is simply air conditioning, as we all have come to know. It can regulate air temperature relative to outside temperature and make the indoor environment hot or cold depending upon the system’s settings. 

Here are some of the most common environment HVAC systems are used for.

  • Factories and other industrial buildings.
  • Skyscrapers/apartment complexes.
  • Office buildings
  • Educational institutions.
  • Submarines or other large scale vehicles that require special climate control on the inside.

How does an HVAC work?

An HVAC does more than just simply cooling or heating the air and filtering out undesirable elements. It aims to provide better air quality and comfort for the people inside a building. These systems come in several different types, but they all share the same basic elements and functioning. 

The system starts with a fresh air intake from either the outside or from within the building itself. This process happens in two separate ways as follows.

  • Natural ventilation: This is present in most houses and depends on air’s typical movement in and out through windows, doors, vents and another opening. 
  • Mechanical ventilation: This process is used in most modern buildings, which are much more tightly sealed than the average house. The system employs ducts to move air in and out and through filters to remove dust particles, bacteria, allergens and other particles. 

Once this is taken care of, the air is heated or cooled to remove excess moisture or humidity. The temperature change also doubles up as the AC component, as we’ve come to know.

Also read: How well do external cooling solutions work for laptops?

Yadullah Abidi

Yadullah Abidi

Yadullah is a Computer Science graduate who writes/edits/shoots/codes all things cybersecurity, gaming, and tech hardware. When he's not, he streams himself racing virtual cars. He's been writing and reporting on tech and cybersecurity with websites like Candid.Technology and MakeUseOf since 2018. You can contact him here: yadullahabidi@pm.me.

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