Paper No 314 – Refrigerant circuitry optimization of an outdoor unit heat exchanger based on partial load operating conditions – 13th IEA Heat Pump Conference, Jeju, Korea
Finned tube heat exchangers have been widely used as a condenser and an evaporator in a residential air conditioning and heat pump system. These heat exchangers are mostly designed based on peak load operating points. Heat pump systems operate considerably for a longer period of time at partial load operating conditions rather than peak load design point. This study investigated refrigerant circuitry optimization based on rated and partial load operating conditions. The achieved optimal refrigerant circuitry for each operating condition is different from the other due to different outdoor conditions. The results revealed that significant performance improvement of 4.70% and 2.40% have been achieved in average heat exchanger capacity using optimized refrigerant circuitry based on the highest weighted partial load operating condition rather than peak load design point in cooling and heating modes respectively.