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Old 02-15-2011, 12:43 PM   #122 (permalink)
Joenavy85
Making Ecomods a G thing
 
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: Illinois
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Angie - '08 Infiniti G35 X
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Quote:
Originally Posted by edbso View Post
Underhood temperatures often exceed 100 degrees. The cold line of the air-conditioner and the cool return lines from the evaporator pass through the hot engine compartment. They are often wet and covered with condensation.

It occurred to me that these lines would benefit from insulation so I went to the Home Depot and purchased some insulation for 1/2 inch copper pipe and insulated my pipes. I think that this will increase the efficiency of the system.

Anyone else do this?
being an AC&R tech i'll let you know that it will work better if you insulate only the piping going from the condenser(cooler) to the cabin. the piping going from the compressor to the condenser contains a "superheated" liquid under pressure, once it goes through the condenser it is a subcooled liquid under pressure and then is slowly bled into the evaporator, the drop in pressure causes a large drop in temperature which is where the cooling effect comes from. the piping from the compressor to the condenser will be hot and will be able to lose some of that heat to the engine compartment without the insulation being in place, letting that heat out will improve the efficiency, though it likely won't be a whole lot
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