INVESTIGATION OF THE ECONOMIC PERFORMANCE OF A ROOM AIRCONDITIONER WORKING ON R-22 & R134a

Abstract

With the awareness to safeguard the environment from the refrigerants which cause the depletion of ozone layer in the stratosphere region and leads to global warming of the atmosphere, has motivated the refrigeration scientists and engineers to consider various technology options for CFC's usage in refrigeration systems. Evolution of V alternate refrigerants to replace some of the commonly used environmentally unacceptable refrigerants is one of the options considered here. The room airconditioner fi wide application in the modem world and its use is increasing day by day in our country too. Though presently majority of systems are working on R-22 refrigerant but due to environmental constraints, R-22 is to be replaced with an ecofriendly refrigerant. R-134a is considered a potential alternative to be used in room air conditioner. Therefore, the present work proposes to investigate performance of a 1.0 TR room airconditioner working on R-22 and R-134a alternately. The COP and other refrigerating r~ parameters of R134a would b compared with that of R-22 airconditioner. The experimental set-up is mainly a window type room airconditioner of 1.0 TR refrigerating capacity working. on R-22. Modifications were carried out on the test air conditioner for measuring condenser and evaporator pressures as well as temperatures and arrangements were made to vary charge of refrigerant to achieve predetermined value of evaporating temperature. iii The variation in COP, Power consumption and cooling effect by varying evaporating temperature were determined for both the refrigerants and a comparison was made of the performance of airconditioner, working on R-22 and R-134a alternately. Finally, modifications and suggestions were made to develop a new airconditioner working on R-134a based on findings of this study. iv