Improving the performance of a rechargeable personal cooling system with low GWP refrigerants

Rohit Dhumane, Yiyuan Qiao, Jiazhen Ling, Vikrant Aute, Yunho Hwang, Reinhard Radermacher

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

Abstract

Personal cooling systems (PCS) enable 10-30% saving in building energy consumption, which takes up 41% of US primary energy. An innovative PCS called Roving Comforter (RoCo) uses R134a based vapour compression cycle (VCC) to provide cooling. To reduce environmental impact, it is necessary to evaluate RoCo performance with low GWP refrigerants. The condenser heat of VCC is stored in a phase change material (PCM) storage, which limits the cooling operation duration. A recharge operation is conducted after the cooling operation. A validated dynamic model (using Modelica) of VCC integrated with PCM is used to simulate the cooling operation with R32, R1234yf, R1234ze(E) and R290. The change in COP is +8%, -12% and -5% and -5% with R32, R1234yf, R1234ze (E) and R290 respectively. Dynamic pressure, mass flow rates, temperature and power are presented.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationICR 2019 - 25th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration
EditorsVasile Minea
PublisherInternational Institute of Refrigeration
Pages4010-4017
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9782362150357
DOIs
StatePublished - 2019
Externally publishedYes
Event25th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, ICR 2019 - Montreal, Canada
Duration: Aug 24 2019Aug 30 2019

Publication series

NameRefrigeration Science and Technology
Volume2019-August
ISSN (Print)0151-1637

Conference

Conference25th IIR International Congress of Refrigeration, ICR 2019
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityMontreal
Period08/24/1908/30/19

Funding

This research was supported by the Advanced Research Projects Agency - Energy (ARPA-E) under Award DE-AR0000530 and Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE). The authors acknowledge the support of the team members of the Roving Comforter Project.

Keywords

  • Low GWP Refrigerants
  • PCM
  • Personal Cooling
  • Refrigeration

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Improving the performance of a rechargeable personal cooling system with low GWP refrigerants'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this