COMPARATIVE EXPERIMENTAL STUDY ON MICROCHANNEL AND FINNED-TUBE EVAPORATORS IN A WINDOW AIR-CONDITIONING SYSTEM

In view of the increasing energy consumption, it has become more and more important to compare different solutions in various everyday applications of broad use. Here, we compare the performance of a microchannel evaporator (MCE) and a finned tube evaporator (FTE) in a window air-conditioning refrigeration system. To allow for a fair comparison between the two cases, the evaporators are identical in terms of shape, volume, surface area, air-side heat transfer area, fin thickness, and fan speed. By exploring a range of different refrigerant charges and thermal loads and measuring properties, such as the inlet and outlet temperature difference, the pressure drop, the cooling capacity and the coefficient of performance (COP) of the two evaporators, we find that MCE overall exhibits a better performance. In particular, the cooling capacity of MCE is 38.8% and 14.5% higher than that of FTE under different charges and thermal loads, respectively, while the COP of MCE is 40.8% and 23.7% higher than that of FTE under the two different conditions. Moreover, in terms of pressure drops and temperature difference, MCE is more stable than FTE. We anticipate that our experimental results may provide the data support in favor of the application of the microchannel evaporator in the window air-conditioners' industry.