Experimental study on evaporative cooling for pre-cooling of discharge line of split air conditioner's compressor

Air conditioners consume high energy especially in very hot climate regions, and then performance of the system decreases. Therefore, reducing the energy consumption of the conditioners is one of the most important problems for an air conditioner. In this thesis, an experimental study on split air conditioner having 24000 Btu/h cooling capacity is performed by applying evaporative cooling of the condenser. In order to cool the air before passing on the condenser, it is cooled by spraying cold water. Thermal performance of the cooling unit is determined by measurement of performance parameters for the cooling unit and its conditions. The parameters are inlet and outlet temperatures, mass flow rate of the fluids, voltage and current used by the compressor and fans of the air conditioner. Data for the air conditioner before and after modification are collected from June to August 2014 to obtain the performance parameters of the unit. The testes are performed between 32 and 45 C°, and for two relative humidity of 45 and 80 % to compare the system performance in medium and high relative humidity. Results show that the energy consumed by the air conditioner can be saved between 23 and 27.5 % at the testing conditions while the COP of the unit increases between 36 and 49 %. The results indicate that this type of air conditioner can be used reliably and efficiently for Gaziantep climatic conditions