Thermostats are a small yet essential part of every modern air conditioner. It’s the “face” of your HVAC system, and with the right kind of thermostat, it can help improve the A/C’s overall efficiency. Amber Air Conditioning shares a closer look at how it works. How Do Thermostats Work? Most homeowners might be surprised to know that thermostats do not have anything that resembles a thermometer, despite being used to regulate your home’s indoor temperature. Instead, it relies on a much simpler mechanism: thermal expansion. Materials expand when exposed to heat, but at different rates. This principle is the backbone of the traditional thermostat: two strips of different metals, usually steel and copper, are fused together. The difference in expansion rates bends the strip as the temperature increases. This triggers a switch that turns on the air conditioner (or dampers, if you have a ducted system), which then begins pumping out cool air. As the […]