Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

www.elsevier.com/locate/enconman

Experimental study on split air conditioner with new

hybrid equipment of energy storage and water heater all year
round
Shaowei Wang
a

a,*

, Zhenyan Liu a, Yuan Li b, Keke Zhao b, Zhigang Wang

School of Mechanical and Power Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200030, PR China
b
Qingdao Hisense Group Co. Ltd., Qingdao 266030, PR China
Received 9 June 2004; accepted 24 October 2004
Available online 13 April 2005

Abstract
This paper presents a split air conditioner with a new hybrid equipment of energy storage and water heater all year round (ACWES). The authors made a special design on the storage tank to adjust the refrigerant
capacity in the storage coils under dierent functions, instead of adding an accumulator to the system. An
ACWES prototype, rebuilt from an original split air conditioner, has been nished, and experimental study
of the operation processes of the prototype was done from which some important conclusions and suggestions have been made, which were helpful in the primary design and improvement of an ACWES system for
potential users.

2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Energy storage; Split air conditioner; Super cool; Water heater

1. Introduction
With rapid growth of the social economy, the living standard of Chinese people has been
improved a lot. As a result, the amount of energy consumed by air conditioners and water heaters
*

Corresponding author. Tel.: +86 13671655011; fax: +86 2164076226108.

E-mail address: wswtop@sjtu.edu.cn (S. Wang).

0196-8904/$ - see front matter
2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.enconman.2004.10.024

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S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

is increasing rapidly, which leads to the following problems: one is that it is uneconomical if the
air conditioner and water heater are individual units exclusively from the viewpoint of cost and
installation. The other one is that the power consumed by air conditioners occupies 20% of the
total power consumption. Moreover, the increasingly wide use of air conditioners leads to more
serious disequilibrium between the supply of and demand for electrical power. The decision of
how to shift power load and balance power load is of great importance. One of the important
solutions is cool storage (ice storage mainly), which has mainly spread in the commercial buildings
in China and is of good social and economical benet. However, experimental and academic study
of domestic storage air conditioners is far from sucient. The cost share of a storage unit is larger
in a domestic storage air conditioner system than in a commercial storage air conditioner. Moreover, the domestic air conditioner is characterized by compact structure and little installation
space. The above reasons restrict the development of domestic storage air conditioners if only
a storage function is added to a domestic air conditioner. In Japan [1], an ice storage cabinet
air conditioner (cooling capacity 28 kW) has been studied. Experimental results show that cool
storage use in residential buildings is feasible. In China, Liu [2] simulated the ice storage process
for an ice storage cabinet air conditioner (cooling capacity 28 kW too), which showed that when
the refrigerant quality was over 0.6, the heat transfer coecient inside the coils would decrease,
accompanied by an increase of refrigerant quality. So, changing the refrigerant direction was advised. Although it was feasible theoretically, it was not practical. It is important to pay much
attention to energy conservation in the eld of energy storage and heat pump (HP) water heater
technology in combination for domestic air conditioners.
In the present study, a split air conditioner with a new hybrid equipment of energy storage and
water heater all year round is considered. The idea is simple but eective! The specially designed
storage tank can be axed directly to the split air conditioner. The whole equipment is called
ACWES. In summer, the ice storage coils work as the evaporator. Ice storage is done during o
peak electrical demand periods and in a relatively cool environment. At the power consumption
peak, the storage coils act as a super cool condenser, which not only increases the super cooling
degree of the refrigerant owing from the condenser, but also improves the coecient of performance (COP) of the split air conditioner. In winter, the energy storage tank is regarded as a heat
storage tank, absorbing the condensing heat to store heat during the heating process. The heat storage can supply the heat capacity to defrost and to heat room simultaneously during the defrosting
period. Moreover, the ACWES can be transformed to be a HP water heater to provide hot water all
year round when the discharging period ends. Although there are many experimental studies on
HP water heaters, whether solar HP water heater or normal HP water heater [46], there is no study
on the integrated system of HP water heater, energy storage and air conditioner technology.

2. System description
Fig. 1 shows the schematic diagram of the ACWES. This system comprises three main units:
indoor unit, outdoor unit and storage unit. The ACWES can work in three kinds of operational
situations, which are cooling without storage, cooling with coolness storage and hot water supply
in summer and heating with and without heat storage, heating with defrost and hot water supply
in winter, respectively. The following shows these functions.

S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

3049

Outdoor unit
Four-way valve

Storage unit
Storage tank

Seperator
1

Exchanger
Compressor

Indoor unit
6

Exchanger
connection part

pressure meter

electro-expance valve

5
4

eletromagnetism valve
cut-off valve

Fig. 1. Schematic diagram of ACWES.

2.1. Description of functions for ACWES

2.1.1. Cooling storage operation
Valves 2, 3 and 6 are open and the other valves are closed, so the storage coils work as the evaporator. Refrigerant from the condenser is throttled by valve 2 and ows into the storage coils
where it is vaporized. As a result, water outside the coils freezes into ice to store cooling capacity.
The ice storage is done at night when the ambient temperature is lower than in the daytime, which
results in a lower condensing temperature to compensate for the COP decrease, to some extent,
from the lower evaporation temperature [3].
2.1.2. Cooling with storage operation
When the ACWES supplies cooling capacity, valves 1 and 3 are closed and valve 2 is open fully.
Refrigerant from the condenser ows into the storage coils. The storage coils work as a super cool
exchanger to raise the super cool degree of the refrigerant to 36 C, which is 7 C for a normal air
conditioner. Raising the super cool degree of the refrigerant can improve the air conditioner operation. Finally, the refrigerant from the storage coils is throttled by valve 5, and then the refrigerant ows into the indoor unit, absorbing heat to cool the indoor air.
2.1.3. Hot water supply in summer
When the cooling with storage operation ends, the water temperature in the storage tank
reaches 15 C. The ACWES can be transformed to a HP water heater to supply hot water. That
is, valve 3 is closed and the other valves are open. Refrigerant from the compressor ows into the
ice storage coils and releases its condensing heat in the coils. The water temperature in the storage

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S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

tank will increase by absorbing the dissipated heat. Finally, the refrigerant owing from the storage coils is throttled by valve 5 and ows into the indoor unit.
2.1.4. Heating with heat storage operation
The function of heating with heat storage means that the ACWES can supply heat to the room
and store heat at the same time. That is, valves 1 and 3 are closed and the other valves are open, so
the storage coils work as a super cool exchanger of the condenser. Refrigerant from the condenser
ows into the storage coils, water outside the coils absorbs heat, and then, the refrigerant is throttled by valve 2, ows into the evaporator and vaporizes in the evaporator. This is the heating with
heat storage process.
2.1.5. Heating with defrost operation
The normal method to defrost is by adjusting the four way valve, which means that, during the
defrosting period, the operation changes from heating to cooling. This method has some shortcomings. For example, during the defrosting period, the indoor unit is an evaporator and absorbs
heat from the indoor air, which will decrease the indoor temperature. As a result, indoor comfort
can be destroyed.
The heating with defrost operation means that when the defrosting condition is reached, valve 2
is adjusted to open fully and the four way valve does not need to change direction. The expansion
of the refrigerant from the indoor exchanger takes place in valve 5, and then the evaporation of
the refrigerant occurs in the storage coils. Then, the refrigerant ows into the outdoor exchanger
and releases heat to defrost. The best advantage of this method is that during the defrosting period, the four way valve need not change direction and the indoor exchanger remains in heat mode
so that the indoor comfort is not aected.
Fig. 2 gives the pressureenthalpy diagram of the heating with defrost operation circulation in
which the heating with heat storage is cycle 1-2-3-3 0 -4-1 in which 3-3 0 is the heat storage process.
Cycle 1-2-3-4 0 -1 0 -2 0 -1 shows the heating with defrost process in which 4 0 -1 0 is the cooling capacity
supplied by the heat storage and 1 0 -2 0 is the defrosting process of the outdoor exchanger.
2.1.6. Hot water supply in winter
When hot water is needed, the ACWES can be changed to a HP water heater to supply hot
water. That is, valves 1, 4 and 5 are closed and the other valves are open. Refrigerant from the
lg p
3
3'

2'

4
4'

1'
defrost
heat

1"

Fig. 2. Pressureenthalpy diagram of the system circulation in winter.

S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

3051

compressor ows into the ice storage coils and releases its condensing heat in the coils. The water
temperature in the storage tank will increase by absorbing the dissipated heat. Finally, the refrigerant is throttled by valve 2 from the coils and into the outdoor unit. Even when the outdoor temperature is 2 C/1 C, the water in the tank can rise to 40 C.
2.2. System description
In the design, an air conditioner with a cooling capacity of 3 kW is selected as the original air
conditioner to form the sample unit of the ACWES. Fig. 3 gives the pressure- enthalpy diagram of
the system circulation in which the normal air conditioner cycle is 1-2-3-4-1, and the ACWES
cooling cycle is 1-2 0 -300 -3 0 -4 0 -1 in which 300 -3 0 shows the super cooling process supplied by the cooling storage. Because the temperature of state 3 0 must be above 0 C, based on the cooling cycle
analysis, the maximum design capacity supplied by the ice storage is 25% of the condensing heat,
that is, the design cooling capacity supplied by ice storage is 33% of the original standard cooling
capacity. This is characteristic of storage load design for a domestic storage system.
The storage coils are copper pipes with diameter of 9.52 mm. The coils are immersed in the
tank. The water temperature in the tank rises from 0 C to 15 C, the IPF (ice packing factor)
is 75%, the ice thickness is 15 mm and the security coecient is 1.2. Then, the real ice tank volume
is 0.1 m3, the ice storage load is 50 kg based on above analysis and the length of the coils is 44 m.
The ice storage tank is a chief part of the ACWES, which is connected to the split air conditioner
directly. As a result, its length, heat transfer characteristic and volume are important to the performance of the ACWES. In addition to the heat transfer and lubricating oil cycle characteristics,
consideration of the great dierences of refrigerant capacity in the storage coils under dierent
operation conditions is important to the success of the ACWES system. The storage coil is an
evaporator (cooling storage), a super cool exchanger (discharging) and a condenser (hot water
supply). The refrigerant state in the coils is dierent for the dierent conditions. When the coils
are an evaporator or condenser, the refrigerant state in the coils is two phase ow. However,
the refrigerant is a liquid when the coils are a super cool exchanger. The two dierent states lead
to great dierences of refrigerant capacity in the storage coils under the dierent functions. The
normal method of adjusting the refrigerant capacity is to add an accumulator to the system. However, it is not suitable for a split air conditioner because of the compact structure and limited
refrigerant capacity requirements for a domestic air conditioner. In this paper, the authors design
a special valve structure, as shown in Fig. 4. The storage coils are divided into two parts. The
upper one is three ows, and the lower one is one ow. Then, when the cooling storage is done,

lgp
3
3" 3'

2
2'

4
4'

cooling with discharging circulation

cooling circulation
h

Fig. 3. Pre-enthalpy diagram of normal and storage air conditioner.

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S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

P
P

pressure meter
eletromagnetism valve

Fig. 4. Special valve structure.

all the coils can be used. However, under the discharging condition, only the lower part is used to
be the super cool exchanger, so the refrigerant capacity in the system becomes much less. The simulation model of the ACWES indicates that the refrigerant capacity in the storage coils under the
discharging function should be about four times that under the charging function, which provides
the theoretical basis for the special design of the storage tank for the ACWES. The model of the
ACWES is not presented in this paper. The following experimental results prove that the storage
coils performance is improved by this means. So, for the ACWES system, no accumulator is
needed to adjust the refrigerant capacity during the dierent functions. A detailed overview of
the storage tank and outdoor unit is shown in Fig. 5.

3. Experimental method and procedure

3.1. Enthalpy dierence lab
The experiments are conducted in a national standard enthalpy dierence lab of China, which
includes an indoor room, where the indoor unit of the air conditioner to be tested is placed, an
outdoor room, where the outdoor unit of the air conditioner to be tested is placed, and an electro-control room, where data acquisition, the electro-control cabinet and the computer are placed,
as is shown in Fig. 6. The fabric structure of each room is insulated with a 200 mm thick mineral
ber blanket. An air readjusting system that has a variable cooling capacity refrigerator, heater
and humidier are used in the indoor room or outdoor room to adjust the indoor and outdoor
parameters to reach the design point where the air conditioner to be tested works. A temperature
and humidity sampling system, which includes a sampling unit, platinum resistance sensor and
automatic water supply setting, measures the dry bulb and wet bulb temperatures of the inlet
and outlet air, as is shown in Fig. 7. The lab is built according to the criterion of GB/T 77251996 of China, in which the air temperature error is 0.2 C, static pressure dierence is 5 Pa,
input power relative error is 0.5% and time interval error is 0.2%. The air conditioner to be

S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

3053

Fig. 5. Photograph of outdoor unit of hybrid air conditioner including storage unit.

Fig. 6. Diagram of enthalpy dierence lab: 1. temperature and humidity sampling system, 2. air parameters readjusting
unit, 3. outdoor unit of air conditioner to be tested, 4. cooling system and 5. air ux measure.

tested is placed in the indoor and outdoor rooms at the design condition. The cooling or heating
capacity can be obtained from q = ma (hout
hin) in which ma is the air ux and hout and hin are
the enthalpies of the outlet and inlet air, respectively. The enthalpy of the wet air can be obtained
from h = 1.01t + 0.001d(2501 + 1.84t) in which t is the dry bulb temperature of the wet air, d is the
p
humidity of the wet air, d 0:622 B
Pq q , B is the local pressure and Pq is the vapor pressure, which
can be determined by the temperature dierence of the wet bulb and dry bulb temperatures.
The energy consumption of the heat pump is measured and shown on a digital screen by a concentrative power meter unit in the controlling cabinet automatically. The temperatures of the
refrigerant in the ACWES system loops and the water in the thermal storage tank are measured
by copper-constantan thermocouples. Both of the above mentioned measuring processes are

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S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

Fig. 7. Temperature and humidity sampling system.

controlled by the data acquisition/switch unit connected with a computer automatically. The
results can be easily digitized and translated into sheets or charts.
3.2. Experimental condition and procedure
The aim of experiments is to study the performance of the ACWES under dierent operation
conditions in summer and in winter. The changing of the dierent functions can be completed
through adjusting on or o or the opening degree of the valves. The parameters of the experimental prototype and condition are shown in Table 1. The parameters in the lab can be adjusted to the
design level through the readjusting system, that is, the lab can simulate the whole weather to meet
experimental requirements. Experiments and observations have been performed on the ACWES
system under summer and winter conditions in the lab.

4. Experimental result in summer

4.1. Cold discharging function
According to the requirement of compressor operation and lubricating oil cycle and based on
the compact structure characteristics of a split air conditioner, the refrigerant capacity is limited.
The refrigerant ow during the cold discharging time is larger than that during the storage time.
The coil length should be dierent to accommodate the dierent refrigerant capacities. In the
experiment, two kinds of coil lengths are used to analyze the discharging performance of the
ACWES. One is the same length as under the charging condition and the other is only 1/4 of that
under the charging condition. The results are shown in Tables 2 and 3.
From Table 2, it is obvious that the cooling storage cannot meet the design requirement, that is,
it cannot supply super cooling capacity for 8 h. The main reasons are the following. The rst one
was that the condensing temperature was lower than the outdoor temperature. The storage coils

S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

3055

Table 1
Parameters for designing air conditioner and experimental condition
Parts name

Dimension (mm)

Pipe numbers Diameter Space between n

(mm)
(mm)

Evaporator
Condenser

Length width (616 210) mm 10

Length width (736 500)mm 20

Compressor
R22 (refrigerant)

Specs: SGZ20D***Y
Weigh (g): 1800

Storage tank
Storage coils
Water (storage media)

Length width height (mm) 600 500 400

Flows number: 4

Remark

For simple adjustment, all valves are cut-o valves, down parts of storage coils is used when
defrosting operation

Sample unit prototype KFR-30GW/BP

Indoor
Dry-bulb temp
Wet-bulb temp
Outdoor
Dry-bulb temp
Wet-bulb temp
Winter
Indoor
Outdoor

7
9.52

440
526

Each ow length (m): 11

weigh (kg): 90

COP
2.6
Cooling capacity (W) 3000

27 C
19 C
35 C
24 C

Power (W)

Standard
20 C
15 C
7 C
6 C

Dry-bulb temp
Wet-bulb temp
Dry-bulb temp
Wet-bulb temp

1.4
1.4

Number

Defrost
20 C
15 C
2 C
1 C

1150

COP
2.8
Heating capacity (W) 4000
Input power (W)

1430

Table 2
Discharging performance of ACWES when coil length is the same during charging and discharging periods
Condensing
Cooling
Input
COP
Refrigerant
Refrigerant
Time Average
temperature (C) capacity (W) power (W)
temperature
temperature temperature
of water (C) of outlet coils (C) of inlet coils (C)
0:00
0:30
1:00
1:30
2:00
2:30
3:00
3:30
4:00

1.4

0.4
0.0
0.2
0.4
3.4
6.6
10.9
15.4

6.4
20.9
19.2
19.8
14.1
16.4
21.5
29.4
32.5

30.0
30.7
30.9
30.9
30.8
30.8
31.3
33.2
34.6

32.4
32.5
32.7
32.6
33.4
33.4
34.2
35.5
36.0

2644.2
3455.5
3770.4
3731.1
4049.6
3790.5
3617.4
3314.1
2817.2

969.7
1037.6
1024.8
1036.1
1055.9
1080.1
1107.6
1134.2
1023.9

2.73
3.33
3.68
3.60
3.84
3.51
3.27
2.92
2.75

did not work as a super cool exchanger but as a condenser. As a result, the discharging rate was
too fast to meet the design requirement. The second one is that if the coil length is same during
both the storage and discharging times, the refrigerant capacity in the coils would be insucient
during the discharging period. At the same time, the refrigerant capacity of the domestic air
conditioner was limited. So, cutting the length of coils during the discharging period to meet

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S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

Table 3
Discharging performance of ACWES when coil length is 1/4 during discharging period of that during charging period
Time

Average
temperature
of water (C)

Refrigerant
temperature
of outlet coils (C)

Refrigerant
temperature of
inlet coils (C)

Condensing
temperature (C)

Cooling
capacity (W)

Input
power (W)

0:00
0:30
1:00
1:30
2:00
2:30
3:00
3:30
4:00
4:30
5:00
5:30
6:00
6:30
7:00
7:30
8:00

1.8

0.8
0.0
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.4
2.9
3.6
4.4
6.1
7.9
8.5
9.0
9.6

1.0
1.2
2.0
3.0
2.9
2.9
3.1
3.4
3.3
4.9
6.8
8.5
9.0
9.5
10.2
11.7
13.6

39.8
40.5
40.8
40.4
40.2
40.2
40.2
40.1
40.3
40.5
40.6
40.0
40.0
40.1
40.3
40.6
40.9

41.8
41.9
42.0
42.0
41.8
41.9
41.7
41.6
41.6
41.6
41.6
41.8
41.8
41.8
41.8
41.7
41.7

49.6
2884.9
3958.6
3984.4
4002.1
3995.1
4000.9
3995.8
3991.2
3941.9
3905.6
3871.9
3850.1
3830.3
3814.5
3778.5
3736.5

329.5
1147.1
1228.6
1225.6
1227.3
1225.2
1212.1
1213.4
1212.1
1211.8
1213.4
1217.8
1217.2
1218
1220.5
1221.6
1220.8

COP

2.51
3.22
3.25
3.26
3.26
3.30
3.29
3.29
3.25
3.22
3.18
3.16
3.14
3.13
3.09
3.06

refrigerant requirement was adopted for the ACWES. From Table 3, we nd that it is true that the
ice storage could meet the design requirement of 8 h. Moreover, compared with the original air
conditioner with cooling capacity of 3 kW, the average cooling capacity increased by 28.2%
and the coecient of performance (COP) increased by 21.5%.
4.2. Hot water supply
When the discharging function ends, the ACWES is changed to the hot water supply function.
The experimental results are shown in Table 4. Ninety kilograms of water is heated from 18.2 C

Table 4
Hot water supply (outdoor temperature is 35 C/24 C)
Time

Average
temperature
(C)

Refrigerant outlet
temperature of coils (C)

Refrigerant inlet
temperature of coil (C)

Cooling
capacity (W)

Input
power (W)

0:00:00
0:10:00
0:20
0:30
0:40
0:50
1:00
1:10

18.2
21.3
26.9
31.1
34.1
36.2
38.2
40.1

23.9
45.2
35.5
35.3
38.8
38.3
40.0
40.3

22.9
22.9
29.4
33.9
36.8
38.1
39.9
40.1

633.0
2911.7
2742.8
2610.8
2577.5
2477.1
2376.1
2274.1

319.6
913.9
937.3
966.4
1006.5
982.4
799.1
791.7

S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

3057

to 40.1 C in 70 min, the average cooling capacity is 2.191 kW and the consumed power is
839.6 W, that is, the average COP of the ACWES is 2.77 during the hot water supply period,
which means that, to supply the same heating capacity, the power of the ACWES is only 36%
of that of an electrical water heater Moreover, during the hot water supply period, the cooling
capacity is 2325.39 W.

5. Experimental result in winter

5.1. Heating with heat storage

average water temp C

tempof inlet refrigerant C
temp of outlet refrigerant C

30
25
20
15
10
5
0

0:
00
0:
05
0:
10
0:
15
0:
20
0:
25
0:
30
0:
45
1:
00
1:
15
1:
30
1:
45
2:
00

Temperature C

Under the standard heating condition, the ACWES can store heat while heat capacity is being
supplied to the room. The experimental results are shown in Figs. 8 and 9. After the system
worked for 30 min, the heat capacity of the ACWES was the same as that of the original air conditioner. Moreover, with increase of the heat storage, the heating capacity increased. During the
experiment, the average heating capacity and COP were 4131 W and 2.94, respectively. Compared
with the original air conditioner with a heating capacity of 4 kW, the average heating capacity and
COP of the ACWES increased by 3% and 5%, respectively. Moreover, the water temperature in
the storage tank increased from 5.3 C to 16.5 C, that is, heat is stored in the storage tank during
the heating with heat storage function.

Time

3.5
3
2.5
2
1.5
heating capacity
COP

COP

4500
4000
3500
3000
2500
2000
1500
1000
500
0

0:
00
0:
05
0:
10
0:
15
0:
20
0:
25
0:
30
0:
45
1:
00
1:
15
1:
30
1:
45
2:
00

heating capacity (W)

Fig. 8. Experimental results: variation of temperature with time during heating with heat storage period.

1
0.5
0

Time

Fig. 9. Experimental results: variation of heating capacity and COP with time during heating with heat storage period.

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S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

5.2. Heating with defrost

When the standard heating with heat storage process ends, the ACWES is changed into the
defrost function, that is, the outdoor temperature is adjusted from 7 C/6 C to 2 C/1 C. The
ACWES continues to operate in the heating with heat storage function for 2 h, until it is time
to defrost. The experimental results are shown in Table 5. During the defrosting period, the average heating capacity was 2466 W, and the defrosting time was 7 min. It was adapted to the
defrosting control condition of the original air conditioner, that is, the control model of defrost
needed no change.
5.3. Hot water supply
The ACWES can be transformed to a HP water heater to supply hot water. The experimental
results are shown in Table 6. Ninety kilograms of water was heated from 26.3 C to 40.2 C in
25 min when the outdoor air temperature was 7/6 C (dry bulb temperature/wet bulb temperature), the average heating capacity was 3.88 kW and the consumed power was 1538 W, that is,
the average COP of the ACWES was 2.5 during the hot water supply period, which meant that,
to supply the same heat capacity, the power of the ACWES was only 40% of that of an electrical
water heater.

Table 5
Heating with defrost process of ACWES
Time

Average
temperature (C)

Refrigerant outlet
temperature of coils (C)

Refrigerant inlet
temperature of coils (C)

Heating capacity
(W)

Input power
(W)

0:01
0:02
0:03
0:04
0:05
0:06
0:07

13.5
12.3
11.1
9.9
8.7
7.5
6.3

2.0
1.8
2.1
2.2
2.1
1.6
1.3

11.9
10.2
9.6
8.9
7.3
6.6
5.7

2743.8
2707.5
2612.3
2454.4
2323.6
2235.0
2185.5

1380.0
1453
1473.0
1682.0
1733.0
1685.0
1676.0

Table 6
Hot water supply (outdoor temperature is 7 C/6 C)
Time

Average
temperature (C)

Refrigerant outlet
temperature of coils (C)

Refrigerant inlet
temperature of coils (C)

Input power (W)

0:00
0:05
0:10
0:15
0:20
0:25

26.3
29.4
32.5
35.4
38.2
40.2

42.3
49.5
50.9
52.6
53.0
45.1

27.6
32.3
35.9
39.3
42.4
42.3

1631.4
1653.0
1703.8
1764.7
1515.3
959.3

S. Wang et al. / Energy Conversion and Management 46 (2005) 30473059

3059

6. Conclusion
The following conclusions can be drawn from this experimental study:
1. In order to satisfy the dierent functions of the ACWES, the storage coils must be designed
specially to make sure that it can hold dierent refrigerant quality during the charging and
discharging period. The lengths of the storage coils during the discharging period must be
less than that during the charging period. Otherwise, the storage coils can not be a super
cooling exchanger but can only be a condenser. As a result, the aim of the storage air conditioner is not met.
2. Compared with the original air conditioner, the average cooling capacity of the ACWES
increases by 28.2%, and the coecient of performance (COP) increases by 21.5%.
3. In winter, it can supply heating capacity to the room and store heat at the same time. When it
is under the defrosting condition, the heat storage can supply heating capacity to defrost and
to heat the room.
4. The ACWES can supply hot water with high eciency all year round.

References
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sector. Energy 2000;25:5170.
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