Operating characteristics of a three-evaporator air conditioning (TEAC) system

Multi-evaporator air conditioning (MEAC) systems become more and more popular, as they possess many advantages compared with chilled water based air conditioning systems. These include higher energy efficiency and system design and installation flexibility. However, although the coupling effects of the operating parameters in an MEAC system have been extensively modeled, the detailed operating characteristics of an MEAC system with more than two indoor units (IU) have not yet been experimentally investigated. In this paper, two Sets of experiments were specifically designed and carried out to study the operating characteristics of an experimental three-evaporator air conditioning (TEAC) system, with the changes in the operating parameters in one of the three IUs/indoor spaces (IS) in the first Set and that in two of the three IUs/ISs in the other. Similar coupling effects of mutual influences reported in previous dual-evaporator air conditioning systems may also be observed in the first Set. However, when the operating parameters in two of the IUs/ISs varied, the coupling effects became more complicated, with mutual influences being more remarkable than that in the first Set with even less variation magnitude. Furthermore, the changes on both refrigerant side and air side of each IU/IS in the experimental TEAC system were studied, which is the first of its kind in the open literature. The results reported in this paper can be used as an important reference for the optimization of system design and developments of appropriate capacity controllers for MEAC systems.