Performance Chart: A Novel Method for Performance Analysis of Multi-unit Air Conditioners

Multi-unit air conditioners (MUACs) keep fast increasing for its high efficiency and thermal comfort. A novel method, performance chart, is presented for the performance analysis of MUACs. The performance chart is generated by superimposing the performance of indoor units and outdoor unit, which can be obtained by simulations and/or experiments. The performance chart is validated by the experiments and detailed simulation models. Based on the performance chart, the performance of MUACs is analyzed at conditions of variable indoor temperatures. The performance chart can give the reasonable and quantitative trends of MUAC's performance and guide the system design, indicating that it can be used as an effective and convenient tool for performance analysis and system optimization of MUACs.