Experimental and Analytical Study for Condenser Shading Effects on Air-Conditioning System Performance

An experimental and analytical study for performance of shaded condensers is presented. A three tons of refrigeration (TR) unit installed in a 2-story house was experimentally studied between June and September. Analytical simulations for a 3 TR unit and for a wider range of capacities ranging from 80 to 370 TR was done. The experimental results for the 3 TR unit showed 12–39% improvement in the COP of the cycle under various evaporator temperatures with uncertainty levels between ±1.63–13.6%. The simulated results for the same capacity (3 TR) showed higher improvements than the experimental ones. However, for larger capacities, the simulations showed lower improvements than the 3 TR unit and ranged between 10–14%.