The comparative study between R-22 and R-410A as refrigerant in air conditioning applications

Abstract

Since the ozone hole was discovered in the late 1970s, a lot researches had been carried out to determine the main contribution to this phenomena. One of the main contributions is the refrigerant R-22. Previous researches showed that R-22 disintegrate the ozone molecules when chlorine atom reacted with ozone molecules, resulted in ozone depletion. In order to reduce the ozone depletion, R-22 was scheduled to be phased out and alternatives were determined to replace R-22. This study reports the thermal characteristic and environmental attributes of R-22 and R-410A refrigerants. The experiment was conducted in a test room in the School of Environmental Engineering, University Malaysia Perlis. The performances of both refrigerants were experimentally determined. The experimental data were taken every 15 minutes in 12 hours a day from 8 February to 15 March 2012. The average coefficient of performance (COP) was determined using the measured temperature of the cooled space and ambient temperature. Average COP for the R-22 and R-410A refrigerant were 4.8 and 6.3 respectively. The average power consumption for R-22 refrigerant and R-410A were 6.9 kilowatt and 5.6 kilowatt respectively. The experiment results indicate that R-410A refrigerant is economically preferable, more environmental friendly and has a better performance therefore it is an alternative solution for replacing the obsolete R-22 refrigerant.