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

Abstract

These days, life would not be comfortable without air conditioning which leads to high power consumption due to air conditioning and subsequently increases the carbon footprint. In this research, verification was done on the capability of increasing superheat to improve the performance of the air-cooled split unit and the effect of power consumed by the air conditioning system. The superheat was increased by the heat harvested from the condensing unit of the air-cooled split unit by using a heat pipe. The heat pipe was charged with water, R134a, and R600a with a 100% filling ratio and 90 and 70 inclination angles. K-Type thermocouples, pressure gauges, and power meter were used in data collection. According to data analysis, water with a 90 inclination angle of heat pipe showed the best performance compared to other fluids because of its ability to increase superheat by approximately 32% compared to R600a which increased only approximately 6.5% compared to normal conventional air conditioning. However, it demonstrated that a rise in the superheat at the suction line and a rise in the Coefficient of Performance cannot guarantee a fall in energy usage. This was due to an increase of superheat by the water heat pipe at 90 angle inclination indicating approximately a 28.8% increase in power consumption.