How Does Air Conditioning Work? [Comprehensive Guide – 2025]

Contributors

ActronAir Team

Published on

January 15, 2021

Choosing the best air conditioner is tricky without first learning how they work. This is your guide to understanding the air conditioning process and how different types of air conditioner work.

What are ducted air conditioners?

Historically, ducted air conditioning systems were used in commercial settings and workplaces. However, these days almost every new home built in Australia has ducted systems included.

That’s because ducted systems are typically better suited to full home air conditioning, as they typically provide more powerful conditioning in humid climates. They tend to perform better than other types of conventional air conditioning (like wall hung split or multi-head splits).

They’re able to deliver well conditioned indoor air quality to all the rooms in your home, via ductwork that runs inside your ceiling to vents inside the rooms, where the cooled moist air is then delivered.

This makes them well-suited to larger spaces or homes, and allows them to give you the ability to pick and choose which parts of your home to cool or heat. They are also known as evaporative air conditioners.

What parts make up a Ducted system?

Ducted – or evaporative – air conditioning systems typically come in two parts: the indoor and outdoor units. The outdoor unit is installed outside your home (in Australia that’s usually down the side of the home next to the neighbour’s fence – check out our Vertical Discharge video to see how we uniquely design our systems to suit Australian homes better).

The outdoor unit is then connected to the indoor unit via copper piping (which carry the refrigerant) and electrical cables.

The indoor unit is located inside your roof cavity, where it connects to ductwork that is installed throughout your ceiling space. These ducts will allow your unit to deliver temperature-controlled outside air to your rooms via a vent or outlet – typically installed in the ceiling.

A complete ducted system consists of a lot of different elements: the outdoor unit, refrigerant, the indoor unit, indoor fans, and zone barrels (that sit inside the ductwork).

With so many elements needing to work together, at ActronAir we uniquely design and build more components of the overall system to specifically work together to achieve the best evaporative cooling process – learn more on our unique Unity IQ here.

How do Ducted systems work?

When cooling, the ducted systems work by extracting hot central air from inside the room. This dry air is then run over a cold evaporator coil, which absorbs heat and transforms it into a gas.

Air is then blown over the refrigerant-containing condenser coil, where it cools down and is then delivered back into the room at the desired air temperature.

Meanwhile, the heat that has been converted into gas by-product is sent to the outdoor unit, where it’s pressurised by the compressor and converted into a liquid that flows through the outdoor unit’s coils.

A fan then blows the heat from the liquid and expels the hot air from the unit. The treated liquid from the unit is then sent back up to the indoor unit to repeat the cycle.

Are you looking to heat instead of cool? You’ll be pleased to hear the process is the same (but in reverse). To heat, your air conditioning unit removes cold air from your home and converts it into hot air – or ambient air for an ambient temperature – hence the name “reverse cycle” air conditioning.

How does a multi- or split-system air conditioner work?

Split systems are one of the most popular choices for cooling or heating individual rooms or smaller areas. They consist of two main parts: an indoor unit mounted on a wall inside your home, and an outdoor unit positioned outside.

These units are connected by pipes that carry refrigerant gas, allowing the system to transfer heat in or out of the space. Multi-system air conditioners work in much the same way, but instead of one indoor unit, they can connect multiple indoor units to a single outdoor unit. This makes them ideal for homes where ductwork isn’t practical, or for targeted comfort in several rooms without investing in a full ducted system.

While split and multi-systems generally don’t have the same whole-home capacity as ducted solutions, they can be a flexible, energy-efficient option when you only need to control the climate in certain spaces.

How to find the perfect system for you

While all reverse-cycle air conditioners use the same principle to heat or cool fresh air, not all will have the same performance levels.

To make sure you choose a ducted unit that will meet your requirements, there are many things to consider, such as the size of your home, the number of rooms you choose to cool, the type of control options you want, and the number of zones you’d like to control individually.

How ActronAir stands out from the crowd

ActronAir ducted evaporative coolers are uniquely designed for Australian conditions, specifically built to perform in our harsh, hot and dry climate. That’s why they come with Tru-Blue technology, meaning they’re guaranteed to work in hotter temperatures, provide more powerful cooling capacity in extremes, and are built to last in tough Australian conditions.

And for true energy efficient cooling and comfort, ActronAir ducted units come with Tru-Zone technology, Australia’s best zoning, which gives you more choice, more inclusions, and smarter performance.

When it comes to controls, we don’t rely on third-party control upgrades like other brands. We believe that the best results come when controls and air conditioners are designed and built with each other in mind, which is why we offer a wide range of premium controls designed and built by us, for us. Thanks to our unique approve, these controls are precisely designed to match our systems Finally, we’re proud to design and build our systems right here in Australia, supporting them with the best local service and support.