Experimental evaluation of a vapor compression cycle integrated with a phase change material storage tank based on two strategies

In this survey, the integration of a vapor compression cycle with a phase change material (PCM) storage tank has been evaluated experimentally during the hottest days of five cities with different weather conditions: Tehran, Ramsar Hamedan, Bushehr, and Ahvaz. The temperature conditions for outdoor (condenser, compressor, etc.) and indoor (evaporator) air conditioning units are provided with the help of two separated test chambers and a controller system. The desired system has been examined based on two scenarios. In each scenario, the system is assessed for the conventional air conditioning (AC) system (with no PCM involved) and the AC plus PCM unit. Based on scenario 1 operating strategy, the results indicate that adding the PCM tank decreases the total daily COP compared to the conventional AC unit, which varies from 32.07% for Bushehr city to 17.23% for Tehran city. Whereas the AC plus PCM system's performance enhances during on-peak hours compared to the conventional AC system, which varies from 65.99% for Hamedan city to 12.84% for Bushehr city. Based on scenario 2 operating strategy, adding the PCM storage tank to the conventional AC unit increases total electric energy consumption over 24 h, which varies from 29.35% for Bushehr city to 5.49% for Tehran city. While it leads to shaving the electric peak load from 45.11% to 67.02% in which the highest peak load shaving belongs to Tehran and the least is related to Bushehr city.& COPY; 2023 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study evaluates the integration of a vapor compression cycle with a phase change material (PCM) storage tank through experimental analysis in five cities with different weather conditions. The results show that adding the PCM tank decreases the total daily COP of the AC system compared to the conventional AC unit, but the AC plus PCM system performs better during on-peak hours. Adding the PCM storage tank increases total electric energy consumption over 24 hours, but it also helps in shaving the electric peak load.