Performance improvement of vapor compression cooling systems using evaporative condenser: An overview

Reduction of energy consumption is a major concern in vapor compression cooling systems, especially in areas with very hot weather conditions. In hot weather conditions, performance of these systems decrease sharply and electrical power consumption increases considerably. Evaporative condensers enhance the heat rejection process by using the cooling effect of evaporation and therefore improve energy-usage efficiency. This paper presents an extensive review of the state of the art of evaporative condensers used in residential cooling systems: refrigeration, air-conditioning, and heat pump systems. The paper primarily concentrates on the energy consumption of residential cooling systems worldwide and its related problems. In addition, the paper covers the operation principles of evaporative-condensers, theory of heat rejection, and water evaporation rate. Finally, comparison between different types of condensers is presented. It is found that by using evaporative-cooled condenser instead of air-cooled condenser, the power consumption can be reduced up to 58% and the coefficient of performance can be improved by about 113.4% with systems of different cooling capacities ranging from 3 to 3000 kW.