Performance of alternative refrigerant R430A on domestic water purifiers

In this study, performance of R430A is examined numerically and experimentally in an effort to replace HFC134a used in refrigeration system of domestic water purifiers. Even though HFC134a is used predominantly in such a system these days, it needs to be phased out in near future in most of the developed countries due to its high global warming potential. To solve this problem, cycle simulation and experiments are carried out with a new refrigerant mixture of 76%R152a/24%R600a using actual water purifiers. This mixture is numbered and listed as R430A by ASHRAE recently. Test results show that the system performance is greatly influenced by the amount of charge due to the small internal volume of the refrigeration system in water purifiers. With the optimum amount of charge of 21–22 g, about 50% of HFC134a, the energy consumption of R430A is 13.4% lower than that of HFC134a. The compressor dome and discharge temperatures and condenser center temperature of R430A are very similar to those of HFC134a for the optimum charge. Overall, R430A, a new long term environmentally safe refrigerant, is a good alternative for HFC134a in domestic water purifiers requiring no major change in the system.