Q&A - How to Learn Superheat & Subcooling - Short #191
HVAC School - For Techs, By Techs
Bryan Orr
4.8 • 985 Ratings
🗓️ 9 April 2024
⏱️ 8 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this short podcast episode, Bryan answers an audience member's question and explains how to learn superheat & subcooling, two fundamental aspects of the HVAC/R trade. You can submit questions of your own at https://www.speakpipe.com/hvacschool.
Saturation is when a substance is in the liquid and vapor state in the same place. Eugene Silberstein likes to help us envision it by encouraging us to think of a horizon line on the ocean; anything below it is fully liquid (subcooled, what a submarine would travel through), and anything above it is a vapor (superheated, which a flying superhero would travel through).
Superheat and subcooling can tell you a bit about how the HVAC system's main components are operating. High superheat indicates that there's more vapor in the evaporator, and you're not getting as much efficiency out of your evaporator as you probably could. High subcooling indicates that you're stacking more liquid refrigerant in the condenser, which can be good for efficiency but may also reduce the area of the condenser dedicated to condensing the refrigerant.
Superheat and subcooling are NOT just there to help you set the charge; they can tell you a lot about a system and its components.
Ty Branaman has a great webpage about superheat, subcooling, and saturation at https://www.love2hvac.com/saturation-superheat-subcooling. You can also visit his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@love2hvac.
Craig Migliaccio (AC Service Tech) also has an excellent book on the topic, which you can learn more about at https://www.acservicetech.com/ac-book. You can also visit his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@acservicetechchannel.
Learn more about the 5th Annual HVACR Training Symposium at https://hvacrschool.com/Symposium24.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, hey this is the HVAC school podcast. This is a short Q&A episode. |
| 0:09.0 | Where in Anthony asks a question that we get asked a lot. |
| 0:12.0 | But before I answer his question... He asks a question that we get asked a lot. |
| 0:12.8 | But before I answer his question, |
| 0:15.8 | I want to first thank our great sponsors. |
| 0:18.0 | carrier and carrier.com, |
| 0:20.0 | Santa Fe, dehumidifiers |
| 0:21.6 | in their new five-year complete replacement coverage. |
| 0:25.9 | Find out more at HVACR School.com slash Santa Fe. |
| 0:30.4 | Navac at navac Global.com.com refrigeration technologies at refriggedec.com |
| 0:37.0 | Hi there. My name is Anthony and I was just wondering what's the easiest and most |
| 0:45.4 | convenient way to learn about superheat and subcooling? |
| 0:48.9 | Seemed to be having an issue with that. Thank you. |
| 0:52.4 | All right so first off a big thanks to |
| 0:54.9 | Anthony for being one of the first to use our voicemail system if you want to ask a |
| 1:00.6 | question, ask anything of me or anyone else who is maybe one of our guests or regular contributors you can go to |
| 1:08.7 | speakpipe.com slash hvac school that's speak pipe dot com slash hvac school that's speakpipe dot com slash HVAC school |
| 1:15.6 | But Anthony's question is an important one so for people who are struggling to understand superheater subcool what do they do? Well the first thing that I would |
| 1:23.6 | suggest is you really aren't going to fully understand this stuff until you |
| 1:28.1 | apply it. So until you actually are measuring it you're actually taking the |
| 1:32.1 | temperature of your liquid line and |
| 1:33.4 | your suction line and comparing that to your suction saturation and your liquid |
... |
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