Experimental Study on the Performance of Split Air Conditioner With and Without Cooling Pads at ODU

Abstract

Climate change has increased the temperature of countries like Pakistan, where temperature can increase over 50◦C. Air conditioners have become a basic need for every house and office to achieve comfort level of temperature in the summer season. Split AC consumes lots of energy in the hot and dry summer months. For countries like Pakistan, energy generation is majorly based on nonrenewable energy resources like Oil and Coal-fired power plants. Conserving energy for split air conditioners is required, whose efficiency drops when the temperature goes high, increasing the consumer’s cost. The amount of heat rejected by the condenser depends on the temperature difference between the condenser coil and ambient air passing through it. The ambient air temperature can be a significant factor; therefore, it is proposed that if the system is modified to decrease ambient air temperature before passing on the condenser coil, the amount of heat rejected will increase, and the compressor load will decrease. This study proposes a modification in split AC with a water evaporator unit that can be attached at the intake of split AC’s Outdoor unit. The water evaporator unit used cooling pads with a water supply mechanism. Ambient air passing through these cooling pads get cooler, and this mechanism improve the performance of the split air conditioner. The experiment was designed to measure the performance and power consumption of air conditioners. The results showed that the performance of a one-ton Air conditioner is improved, depicted by the increase in the coefficient of performance and reduced power consumption. It was observed that using evaporative cooling Pads decreased compressor discharge pressure by 10 %, and compressor suction pressure remained the same. With the use of Cooling Pads compressor load decreased, and electricity was conserved by above 10 %.