What exactly does a Blower Motor (aka Indoor Blower) do?
The blower is a fan that produces air movement usually called airflow, which provides the pressure difference to force the air into the duct work and through the supply vents. The amount of air movement provided depends on the amount of airflow received. A good example would be a dirty filter blocking the airflow that goes to the blower. Since it doesn’t receive enough airflow it produces less air movement.
A few other things affect the airflow/movement. One is the condition of the motor, the wheel and housing. Which is why some technicians recommend that you periodically clean the indoor blower and every part associated with the blower motor. Preventative measures can extend the live of your equipment allowing for more time in use and more of your own resources saved.
It is never a waste of time to clean it, the evaporator coil provides cool air and the blower then moves the air. Without a clean and working blade it doesn’t work to its max and ends up wasting energy. The blower motor is located inside the central air conditioning unit.
“Air conditioning unit-en” by Pbroks13 -by; The New Book of Knowledge 1997. p. 102..
Licensed under CC BY 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons.
Central air conditioning units will have different blower speeds for heating and cooling air. It takes more energy to move cold air than hot, so there’s a different speed for it.
There are four parts to blower:
- The Housing
- Belly Band Mount
- The Wheel
- The Motor
More Information on Central Air Conditioning Units
The main job of your home air conditioning unit is to move the heat from inside your home to outside therefore cooling your space in the process. This pulling heat out of the air cools your home. The air is then cooled by blowing it over cold pipes that are called evaporator coils. Which works just like the cooling that occurs when water evaporates on your skin. These evaporator coils are filled with refrigerant, which is a liquid that changes to a gas as its absorbing the heat from air. Then the refrigerant gets pumped outside of the house to a different coil where it then gives up its heat and changes back to a liquid. The coil that is outside is called the condenser because its refrigerant is condensing from a gas to a liquid the same way that moisture appears on a cold glass or window. The pump, called a compressor is then used to move the refrigerant from the coils and changes the pressure of the refrigerant so that it evaporates in the right coils. The energy that does all of this is used by the motor which runs the compressor. The system will normally give you about three times the usual cooling energy that the compressor uses. This weird fact happens because the changing of the refrigerant from a liquid to a gas then back again shows the system much more energy then the compressor actually uses. These systems are also located on your typical heat pump.
