Experimental Investigation of an Alternate Refrigerant for R22 in Window Air Conditioning System

Abstract- This paper is concerned with the future phase-out of Hydro Chloro Fluoro Carbons (HCFCs) used in the air conditioning systems. The air conditioning industry is currently evaluating alternative refrigerants for R-22. A window-type air conditioning system is selected for the tests conducted with three different types of refrigerants. These air conditioning units are spread widely in their applications and are circulating R-22 as a refrigerant. Finding an alternative refrigerant for replacing R-22 is becoming a practical problem because general use of hydro chlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) including R-22 is promised to be banned by 2020 as per the Montreal Protocol. It is intended to replace R-22 refrigerant by other refrigerants which are considered to be environmental friendly. In this project, two zeotrope blend refrigerants were selected to be tested as alternative refrigerants for R-22 in the window type air conditioner system viz., R-407C (mixture of R-32/125/134a), R-407A (mixture of R-32/125/134a) to their better thermal properties and acceptable pressure and temperature ranges. The alternate refrigerants to be used in the project have very less ozone depletion potential (ODP) and global warming potential (GWP). The performance of each refrigerant has been found individually and the results were used to evaluate and compare the following performance criteria: cooling capacity, Energy Efficiency Ratio and the coefficient of performance (COP).