Conference Year
2016
Keywords
microchannel evaporator, round tube evaporator
Abstract
The performance of two evaporators (round tube plate fin and microchannel) and their effect on system performances were experimentally investigated in R410a residential air conditioning systems. Both systems share identical components except evaporators and system performance were measured under AHRI A, B and C conditions. Under all test conditions, the system with the microchannel evaporator outperformed the baseline system with the round tube plate fin evaporator. Up to 10.6% increase of capacity and 13.1% increase of COP were achieved if both systems were operated under the same compressor speed. Up to 23.8% improvement of COP was obtained if the cooling capacities of both systems were kept the same. The refrigerant charge was reduced by 13.4% compared with the baseline system, due to the smaller internal volume of the microchannel evaporator. The air side heat transfer area of microchannel evaporator was just ½ of the baseline round tube plate fin evaporator, and so was the face area.