Pumping vs. Compression - Short #218

HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs

Bryan Orr

Training, Careers, Airconditioning, Self-improvement, Hvac, Business, Education, Refrigeration, Heating, Ac, Apprenticeship

4.8 • 985 Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2024

⏱️ 10 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In this short episode, Bryan clears up the confusion behind pumping vs. compression.

Pumping is usually associated with liquid. Liquid, like vapor, is a fluid, but it's a lot denser and is essentially incompressible because the molecules are close together. Liquid volume varies based on temperature and density, but we can't squish the molecules together. That's why compressors with very little axial and radial compliance fail when flooded; they can't compress the liquid. A circulator pump in a hydronic system is an example of a pump that pushes liquid along, but the pressure difference across the pump is minimal compared to that of a compressor; the same is true of liquid vs. vapor CO2.

However, vapor molecules are far apart and can be squished together to take up a smaller volume. That's why vapor can go through compressors, which take a fluid of one volume and apply pressure to shrink it to a smaller volume, raising the temperature in the process. Pneumatics, as opposed to hydraulics, utilize compression to move vapor around in a circuit. Recovery machines need to be able to compress vapor refrigerant and pump liquid into the recovery tank.

Compressors and pumps can either be positive displacement or non-positive displacement systems. A positive displacement system creates a trap and forces a fixed amount of fluid through a system, like a scroll compressor or a circulator pump. Refrigerant volumes may vary because vapor density varies with temperature and pressure (the volume flow is the same, but the mass flow varies). A condensing fan motor, on the other hand, is dynamic and varies the volume of air it moves in response to pressure, as the mechanism relies on velocity and kinetic energy to move air.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Yup, yep, yep, this is the HVAC school podcast. I'm Brian, and this is a short episode,
0:07.8	and we're going to talk about pumping versus compressing, as well as some other things,
0:13.8	some common confusions that I think can get the cartoons in our head mixed up and messed up
0:18.7	and mixed around. And that's because as technicians, we don't often
0:23.5	think in terms of math and graphs and charts and all that stuff. We think in terms of, like I said,
0:28.9	a cartoon on our head, something that in our brain helps us understand how things work. And if we get
0:34.8	things mixed up, we can get a little confused or rated.
0:38.2	And that's what we're going to talk about.
0:39.4	But before we do that, we want to thank our great sponsors.
0:42.7	Fieldpiece, fieldpiece.com, Navak at navak global.com.
0:49.5	Refrigeration Technologies at refrigetech.com.
0:53.7	Carrier and carrier.com.
0:55.8	I'm a fan of UEI combustion analyzers, and a big reason I'm a fan is because of their overall
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1:39.0	Let's talk about just the basics here, okay? And most of you probably know this.
	...

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