Feasibility study on using evaporator condensate to subcool refrigerant in a vapor-compression refrigeration system

Abstract

A computer simulation based on MATLAB was developed to investigate the effectiveness of using evaporator condensate to subcool refrigerants in a vapor-compression refrigeration system. Three different types of refrigerant including R22, R410a, and R134a were studied. The simulation clearly showed the effectiveness of the technique to subcool refrigerant using evaporator condensate. Throughout the RH range of surrounding in this study, 40%-100%RH, the vapor-compression model system using R22 as a refrigerant provided the highest COP linearly ranging from 3.40 to 3.76. The greatest improvement in COP was found in the model system with R410a where the COP values increased by 3.33% to 15.36.