An experimental evaluation of a residential-sized evaporatively cooled condenser

In this paper, the performance of an innovative evaporatively cooled conden ser is compared with that of a conventional air-cooled condenser for a spli t heat pump system. The system was tested in an environmentally controlled test chamber that was able to simulate test conditions as specified by ASHR AE Standard 116. Tests to optimize refrigerant charge and short tube restri ctor size were conducted using refrigerant HCFC-22. The wheel rotation spee d of the evaporative condenser was also optimized experimentally to maximiz e the coefficient of performance. Using these optimum parameters, steady st ate and cyclic performance tests were conducted. The experimental results s howed that the evaporative condenser has a higher capacity than the air-coo led condenser by 1.8 to 8.1%, a higher COP by 11.1 to 21.6%, and a higher S EER by 14.5%. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.