Experimental investigation of low GWP refrigerants applied to split air conditioner

Abstract EN

In this work, the thermal and environmental investigations for split air conditioner using low global warming potential (LGWP) refrigerants as alternatives to the present R22 are examined experimentally.

Two alternative refrigerants of R290 (GWP=20) and R152a (GWP=133) are examined instead of R22 (GWP=1700).

The experiments are carried out at different range of evaporator air velocities and evaporator air inlet temperatures.

The experiments are conducted at evaporator air inlet temperatures of 31oC, 38oC and 48oC, the air passes over evaporator coil with velocity of 0.5 to 1.6 m/s.

The study parameters such as different evaporator air temperature, discharge temperature, cooling load, electrical compressor power, coefficient of performance, indirect global warming parameter and total equivalent warming parameter are investigated.

The experimental results indicate that refrigerant R152a has the higher thermal performance than R22 and R290 and produces the lowest total equivalent warming parameter.

At a certain evaporator air velocity is 1.2 m/s and the evaporator air inlet temperature is 31°C, the coefficient of performance of R152a is higher than that of R22 by 44.92% .

The Total Equivalent Warming Impact of R290 and R152a are lower than that of R22 by 8.2 % and 30.03 % ; respectively