Experimental study on a residential temperature–humidity separate control air-conditioner

According to the temperature and moisture characteristics and current problems experienced in the Yangtze River Area, a temperature–humidity separate control air conditioner was developed. This unit can remove indoor sensible heat and latent heat load separately, and adjust indoor temperature and humidity respectively, thus improve indoor comfort and reduce energy consumption. The air-conditioner consists of an air cooling evaporator and a water cooling evaporator. Orthogonal experiments were designed to study the influence of outdoor temperature, indoor temperature, indoor humidity, compressor frequency, and refrigerant distribution ratio in air cooling evaporator (RDRAE) on the unit performance. The results showed that the dehumidification capacity ranged from 0 to 4.02 kg/h; the EER ranged from 2.71 to 4.57; the cooling capacity ranged from 6822 to 13,080 W. The results can help to make the control logic of the unit, and be used as the basis of energy consumption calculation. Units with temperature and humidity separate control could save about 15.6% of the cooling energy consumption against traditional residential air-conditioner, and 47.8% against the traditional residential air-conditioner that could control both indoor temperature and humidity.

► We developed a residential temperature–humidity separate control air-conditioner.
► It consists of an air cooling evaporator and a water cooling evaporator.
► Orthogonal experiments were carried out to study its performance.
► Compared to traditional air-conditioner, it saves 47.8% of cooling energy usage.