Performance analysis of retrofit R410a refrigerant with R32 refrigerant on a split air conditioner

Abstract

Split air conditioning (AC) is the most widely used in the community for both commercial and domestic utilities. At the present refrigerant which used in Split AC is mostly common group of HFCs, such as R410a. R410a is a zeotropic refrigerant and if there is a leak in the system, it cannot be added this refrigerant. This will increase the cost of maintenance. The aims of this research is to investigate the retrofit of R410a with R32 on the Split AC system. The R32 is chosen because it has higher latent evaporation heat at the same temperature and has less effect on global warming. The refrigeration effect, the power consumption and the system performance are the main three quantities that want to be examined in this research which are observed before and after retrofit. Experimental investigation conducted during this research, including design and manufacture of experimental equipment, calibration and tools installment, collecting the experimental data and analysis by quantitative description method before and after retrofit. The results informed that cooling effect increased during the research, but the COP system has a slight decrease about 4%. R32 refrigerant is quite feasible as a retrofit refrigerant to R410a refrigerant.