Enhancement of the Performance Characteristics for Air-Conditioning System by Using Direct Evaporative Cooling in Hot Climates

Abstract

This paper presents an experimental study to enhance the performance of a small air condition (A/C) system by mean of direct evaporative cooling method. A setup of cooling system is designed to simulate extremely hot weather where the dry bulb temperature (DBT) reaches the vicinity of 55 ◦C which represents the highest possible weather temperature that was recorded during summer. The proposed design utilizing an evaporative cooling cycle where the air flows over wet pads before it goes through the condenser. Four different parameters are considered to be studied, namely coefficient of performance (COP), energy saving, cooling capacity and the compressor auto-shut down in very high weather temperature. The results showed significant enhancement to the entire A/C system performance where the refrigeration capacity is increased in the range of 5% to 7.5% and there is 0.12A to 0.16A electrical current reduction for each temperature degree reduction. Moreover, and the compressor continued working even with a voltage drop of 16% (185 V instead of 220 V) which can help overcoming a serious problem that middle east countries (such Iraq) suffer during summer.