A standard air conditioner involves a refrigerant that is typically now a fluorinated hydrocarbon, such as CH2F2. An air-conditioner refrigerant has the property that it readily vaporizes at atmospheric pressure and is easily compressed to its liquid phase under increased pressure. The operation of an air conditioner can be thought of as a closed system made up of the refrigerant going through the two stages shown here (the air circulation is not shown in this diagram).

During expansion, the liquid refrigerant is released into an expansion chamber at low pressure, where it vaporizes. The vapor then undergoes compression at high pressure back to its liquid phase in a compression chamber.
(a) What is the sign of q for the expansion?
(b)What is the sign of q for the compression?
(c) In a central air-conditioning system, one chamber is inside the home and the other is outside. Which chamber is where, and why?
(d) Imagine that a sample of liquid refrigerant undergoes expansion followed by compression, so that it is back to its original state. Would you expect that to be a reversible process?
(e) Suppose that a house and its exterior are both initially at 31°C. Some time after the air conditioner is turned on, the house is cooled to 24°C. Is this process spontaneous or nonspontaneous?

Expansion chamber Liquid Vapor Expansion (low pressure) Compression chamber Liquid Vapor Compression (high pressure) 31