EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF R290 ENHANCED SYSTEM PERFORMANCE IN RESIDENTIAL AIR-CONDITIONERS AND HEAT PUMPS

摘要

R290 is one of the alternative fluids for replacing R22, because of low GWP and similar thermodynamic performance. In this study, drop-in performance of R290 and enhanced performance of R290 with suction line heat exchanger (SLHX) are measured in residential air-conditioners and heat pumps. The experiment is conducted in a heat pump test bench and the air conditioner was initially designed for R22 and altered by adding a SLHX. The test showed that with slight alteration, SLHX improved the cooling capacity and COP of R290 in the cooling mode, and slightly increased heating capacity with no obvious change of COP in heat pump condition. Since the pressure drop along the suction line, about 36 KPa, is acceptable and the heat transfer rate of the SLHX, about 125W, is relatively low, the performance of SLHX with higher heat transfer rate is forecasted with thermodynamic analysis.