Recent Blog Posts

Properties of Refrigerants: Refrigerant Numbers

April 7th, 2026

What do the various refrigerant numbers mean? Believe it or not, there is a method to the madness. First of all, most refrigerants are “organic compounds,” which means they have one or more carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. The only series classified as “inorganic”, or lacking these bonds, is the 700-series, which includes ammonia, carbon dioxide, […]

Fundamentals of Refrigeration: States of Matter

February 24th, 2026

Simply defined, “matter” is anything that takes up space and can be weighed. All physical things are made of matter since physical things have both volume and mass. Technically, there are five states of matter: Solid Liquid Gas Plasma Bose-Einstein condensate Items four and five on that list are not relevant to the study of […]

Fundamentals of Refrigeration: Conduction, Convection, and Radiation

February 17th, 2026

There are three distinct categories of heat transfer: Conduction Convection Radiation Each of these heat transfer modes is important to understand. The first two modes, conduction and convection, require direct physical contact between the molecules of the substances involved in the heat transfer.  The third mode, radiation, is the transmission of heat in the form […]

Fundamentals of Refrigeration: Heat Transfer

February 10th, 2026

The movement of heat is traditionally referred to as “heat transfer”. Thermodynamics is a term applied to the study of heat movement. The laws of thermodynamics are a crucial foundation for understanding heat movement. The first law of thermodynamics states that energy can be neither created nor destroyed, merely changed.  Since heat is a form […]

Fundamentals of Refrigeration: Combination Equations

February 3rd, 2026

In the real world, many situations will involve both the sensible heat equation and the latent heat equation. Example 1: How many BTUs are required to change 5 pounds of 100ºF water into 212ºF steam? Before solving this problem, it is essential to recognize that there are two distinct components. First, the temperature of the […]