The effect of changing superheat degrees on energy consumption in a split air conditioning

Abstract

Split air conditioning is the most widely used in the community for both commercial and domestic purpose. But it can cause inefficiency or waste of energy use by the system. For this reason, it is very important to keep the system working in optimum conditions to prevent wasteful use of energy by the air conditioning system. This research will re-investigate the effect of the superheat degree of refrigerant coming out of the evaporator on the system’s energy consumption. This research is conducted by analytical methods and experimental methods whose implementation includes; designing and manufacturing of experimental equipment, installation of measuring instruments experimental data retrieval, data processing and yield analysis. Data processing is done by using thermodynamic methods to get the desired quantities such as; compressor power consumption, refrigeration effects and coefficient of performance (COP). The results were carried out by quantitative descriptive method, namely by analysing changes in the superheat degree of compressor energy consumption. Based on the analysis results show that if degree of superheat is increased, compressor energy consumption increases for all refrigerants used. Whereas COP system decreases for R22 refrigerant, is relatively constant for R410a refrigerant and raises an increase for other refrigerants tested.

Performance of Heat Pipe with Different Working Fluid on Harvesting Wasted Heat Energy at Air Cooled Split Unit

“…The average superheat for conventional AC system was 5.7 K. The increase of superheat when water was used as the working fluid showed the highest power consumed by the AC. The findings of this study demonstrated the increase of the instantaneous power consumption recorded as the superheat increased which align with Ardita et al, [9] findings but different from findings by Qi [24].…”

“…Nevertheless, research conducted by Ardita et al, [9] has shown differences in their findings, indicating that an increase in superheat results in a corresponding rise in power consumption ranging from 0.03% to 0.1%.…”

“…Superheat is the result of subjecting refrigerant to prolonged heating under a constant pressure beyond its saturated steam limit. The superheat value is determined by subtracting the saturation temperature from the actual temperature [9].…”