Research on a compact adsorption room air conditioner

A novel compact adsorption room air conditioner with a cooling capacity of 1 kW has been designed, and two prototypes have been built. A two bed, continuous adsorption refrigeration cycle with heat recovery and mass recovery is adopted. Micropore spherical silica gel and water are selected as the working pair. A gravity heat pipe with methanol as working medium is designed to output the cooling. Experimental investigations have indicated that under typical air conditioning conditions, for the first prototype, a cooling capacity of 687 W and a COP (coefficient of performance) of 0.307 can be obtained. However, for the improved one, a cooling capacity of 790 W and a COP of 0.446 can be reached. It is also proved that the operating temperatures have strong influences on the performance. The designed room air conditioner can be driven by a low grade heat source (< 90 degrees C) and has small dimensions of 300 mm (depth), 500 mm (width) and 950 mm (height). (c) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.