Performance of a R22 Split-Air-Conditioner when Retrofitted with Ozone Friendly ‎Refrigerants (R410A and R417A)

Abstract

R22 that has been used predominantly in air conditioning and in medium and low-temperature ‎applications contains ozone depleting chlorine atoms and hence will be phased out eventually. ‎This paper presents the experimental performance study of split-air-conditioner using ozone ‎friendly alternative refrigerants. The existing split-air-conditioner originally designed for R22 as ‎the working fluid was retrofitted with R410A and R417A respectively and the performance of the ‎system was evaluated and compared with its performance when R22 was used. Experimental ‎results showed that with R417A the system had 1.9% higher refrigeration capacity and 14.2% ‎lower with R410A when compared to that of R22. The average discharge pressure of the ‎compressor obtained with R417A and R410A were 3.8% lower and 10.3% higher, respectively, ‎than with R22. The lowest compressor power consumption and pressure ratio were obtained with ‎the R417A retrofitted system. The average coefficient of performance (COP) obtained using ‎R417A is 2.9% higher, while that of R410A is 8.4% lower than that of R22. Generally, with ‎R417A the system consistently had the best performance in comparison to both R22 and R410A, ‎indicating that R417A would be a better choice for retrofitting existing split-air-conditioners ‎originally designed to use R22 as working fluid.‎