Experimental study on the influence of the water spray cooling on air-cooled condenser of the split-type air conditioner.

Abstract

The global installed capacity of air conditioners is increasing causing issues over energy consumption. Due to the significant impact of heat transfer at the condenser on the operation of the air conditioning system, there has been a growing interest in improving this process through evaporative cooling. This study experimentally investigates the impact of utilizing water spray on the condenser to enhance the performance of the 12,000 BTU commercial split-type air conditioner. The findings suggest that, in most cases, the spray system reduces the required cooling time to cool the space from ambient temperature to 25 C. The performance is influenced by both the nozzle size and the spraying configuration. This was determined by testing three different nozzle sizes and three different layouts. Comparatively, the diagonal design exhibits superior performance to other designs featuring an equivalent nozzle dimension. Moreover, the condensing unit's heat transfer rate is also examined. The coefficient of performance (COP) is also evaluated. The results indicate that the water spray cooling system leads to a significant COP enhancement up to of 6.16%. Moreover, the implementation of the water spray cooling technology at the condensing unit can lead to a 40% reduction in energy consumption.