Automotive air conditioning refrigeration systems are coming under increased scrutiny for energy consumption, yet other market demands are requesting higher cooling capacities. Various areas of the system can be improved for efficiency and capacity, and one method is to apply a different system configuration involving a two stage compression process and a subcooler heat exchanger. Smith and Lepper (1) reported the results from a computer simulation of this two stage system, which yielded the same capacity while using less power than a conventional system. Likewise, the two stage system could produce a higher capacity with no change in the compressor speed. This paper concentrates on the hardware testing of both systems in an environmental chamber, and demonstrates the gains in system capacity and efficiency. In addition, simulation results are presented for the same two systems.
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