Effect of varying ambient conditions on the performance of air conditioner using evaporative cooler

The increasing usage of refrigeration and air conditioning worldwide is a serious concern as regard the greenhouse gas emissions which degrade the environment. Improving the energy efficiency could reduce this damage. The heat dissipation capacity of the condenser and performance of an air conditioner largely depend upon the temperature of the air entering the condenser. This paper evaluates the performance of a 1.5TR split air conditioner with and without evaporative cooling of condenser. The temperature reduction of the ambient air by evaporative cooling is computed for different weather conditions. The Box–Behnken design (BBD) methodology is applied to predict the interaction of parameters and optimize the results while analysis of variance (ANOVA) provides the fitness and validation of the model. It is observed that the proposed system significantly improves the performance of air conditioner. The maximum COP enhancement (9.37%) is achieved for the ambient temperature drop of 6.7 °C for the optimum operating conditions. The corresponding improvement in the refrigerating effect and savings in work input are obtained as 9.52% and 8.54%, respectively. The proposed system is estimated to pay back within 2.9 years. The sustainability indices indicate the environmental improvement by the proposed system.