Performance Enhancement of Split Air Conditioner During Evaporative Cooling Application

Abstract

The increase of condenser temperature and pressure in air-conditioning leads to decreased cooling capacity and the increase of power consumption. Evaporative cooling could improve the thermal performance of the system. In this study, the evaporative cooling module was installed before the condenser to reduce the inlet air temperature to the condenser unit. The impact of condenser air temperature on the air conditioning system's overall performance was determined by varying the cooling pad discharge water flowrate of 880, 1040, and 1200 mL/min. The cooling load of 2000 W was employed in this experiment. The obtained results were compared with the air conditioning without an evaporative cooling module. It shows that the coefficient of performance (COP) increases with the increase of discharge water flow rate. The highest COP obtained is 7.09 at the flow rate of 1200 mL/min. The compressor work reduces about 6.57 % as compared with the air conditioner without evaporative cooling application. Besides, the COP increases by 12. 95 % at the highest flow rate.