Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 49 (2013) 152159

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Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/etfs

Experimental research on the inuence of the air humidity conditions in

an air conditioning system
Pedro Magalhes Sobrinho, Celso Eduardo Tuna
UNESP Univ Estadual Paulista, Engineering College, Energy Department, Av. Ariberto Pereira da Cunha 333, Guaratinguet, So Paulo 12516-410, Brazil

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 28 May 2012
Received in revised form 18 April 2013
Accepted 20 April 2013
Available online 2 May 2013
Keywords:
Air conditioning
Energy efciency
Refrigeration

a b s t r a c t
The factors that have inuence on the energy consumption of a small air conditioning system that are
worth mentioning are the efciencies of the compressor, evaporator and condenser, the form that the
refrigerant ow is controlled, the fan model used, and climatic conditions. Within the climate issue, an
interesting factor is that the relative humidity when it comes to the effect that it causes, especially in
the performance of the air condenser, which generally is not considered in the projects. This study aims
to evaluate the inuence of humidity on the coefcient of system performance (COP), seeking to quantify
their inuence when it happens. The tests were performed on a testing bench, mounted at the Laboratory
for Energy Efciency (LAMOTRIZ) UNESP-Campus Guaratinguet. In the study, the wet bulb temperature
was ranged, keeping the rotation of the scroll compressor with application of a frequency inverter in its
best performance. The test bench is provided with a supervisory system of data collection that is also able
to control all functions of the bench. In the results, there was a signicant inuence, particularly when
comparing high humidity conditions with low humidity, noting that only over 65% relative humidity is
that signicant changes are observed in the COP of the system.
2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
The importance of energy efciency is fundamental, be for the
world economy, or to avoid rationing of electricity and even blackouts, as occurred in 2001 in Brazil, and also to combat global
warming which is undoubtedly one of the biggest challenges of
this century.
According to the report of the United Nations (UNs) released in
Thailand [1], Brazil needs to perform three actions to contain global warming as: ending the illegal deforestation, investing in clean
energy sources like wind and solar, and apply techniques to reduce
the waste of electricity, or improve energy efciency.
The refrigeration is considered a branch of science which deals
with the processes of heat transfer and conservation to reduce the
temperature of a given volume control below the temperature of
the surroundings [2] and therefore falls within the activities that
allow reducing the energy consumption.
The applications of refrigeration can be divided into ve
categories:
(a) Domestic: covers the manufacture of small refrigerators and
freezers.
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: sobrinho@feg.unesp.br (P.M. Sobrinho), celso.tuna@feg.unesp.
br (C.E. Tuna).
0894-1777/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.expthermusci.2013.04.013

(b) Commercial: covers the design, installation and maintenance of refrigerated facilities used in restaurants, hotels
and places of storage, display and processing of perishable
foods.
(c) Industrial: is varied and can be used in different industries
and manufacturing processes.
(d) Air conditioning: has as target to HVAC environments, aiming at the thermal comfort of its occupants.
(e) Refrigerated transport: includes temperature control in special vehicles.
An air conditioning system is a process that aims to control
simultaneously, in an enclosed environment, purity, humidity,
temperature and movement of the air. It is indispensable in
manufacturing processes that require the control of humidity,
temperature and air purity, such as the manufacture of
pharmaceuticals, color printing, operating environments with
ammable or toxics components, surgery rooms, in workplaces
in order to increase comfort and productivity, in residences,
among others.
In the early eighties, 81% of commercial buildings in the United
States appealed to the use of air conditioning systems to promote
thermal comfort. The estimated installed capacity was approximately 100 million tons of cooling. Of these, 95% use the operating
vapor compression cycle. In some regions of Brazil, air conditioning
accounts for 7% of electricity consumption in residential use. In

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153

Nomenclature
COP
(dh)EVA
(dm/dt)
(dV/dt)
ER
g
he
hs
Hp
HVAC
n
p
Pel
Q
Q_ R
R
S

coefcient of performance, the effectiveness of the

refrigeration cycle
specic enthalpy change of the coolant in the evaporator (kJ/kg)
refrigerant mass ow (kg/s)
volumetric ow rate of refrigerant (m3/s)
refrigerating effect or the thermal load of the system
(kW)
acceleration due to gravity (m/s2)
specic enthalpy of the refrigerant at the evaporator inlet (kJ/kg)
specic enthalpy of the refrigerant at the evaporator
outlet (kJ/kg)
pressure loss in the suction line (mCar)
heating, ventilation, and air conditioning
number of points of the sample
local atmospheric pressure (kPa)
electrical power drive of the motor-fan
average air ow rate corrected to normal condition
(Nm3/s)
heat ow absorbed by the refrigerant uid (kW)
constant of air (kJ/kg K)
variance of the sample

Minas Gerais, air conditioning accounts for 3863% of the total

electricity consumed in the banking sector [3].
Another estimate, published in the newspaper O Estado de So
Paulo in 2012, is that the rate of electrical losses in Brazil is close to
17%, as the world reaches the loss of 9% of the energy consumed
[4].
Even the report of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) dedicated a chapter to energy efciency and identies opportunities to contain energy consumption. In addition, the
report adds that if adopted energy efciency practices in new construction, emissions of gases that causes the greenhouse effect
could be reduced by 30% besides of improving air quality, social
welfare and ensure energy security. Only with energy efciency
measures could reduce by about 20% of energy consumption in
Brazil, and reduce CO2 emissions by 10% [1].
Due to its importance and the needy of studies on factors that
have effects on energy consumption in air conditioning systems,
this study aimed to go deep in this area, emphasizing the inuence
of relative humidity, using the resources available of a test bench,
using refrigerant R-22, mounted on Electromotive Efciency Laboratory of UNESP Campus Guaratinguet (LAMOTRIZ).

2. Daily behavior of the air humidity

In stable meteorological conditions, the concentration of water
in the atmosphere and so the pressure, remains constant during
the day.
The temperature has a daily cycle, with a maximum in the early
afternoon and a minimum during the night. Therefore, the saturation steam pressure, a function of temperature, presents respectively maximum and minimum values for the same periods as
the temperature.
The relative humidity is dened as the ratio of the partial pressure of water vapor in the mixture and the saturation pressure corresponding to the dry bulb temperature in the mixture, therefore
has its minimum when the temperature is at maximum and vice
versa.

T
TR
V

air temperature (K)

tons of Refrigeration
corrected average velocity in the output section of the
installation (m/s)
_ comp electrical power for compressor operation (kW)
W
_ fan
electrical power of the fan (kW)
W
_ fan:cond electrical power of the condenser fan (kW)
W
_ total sum of all the powers involved in the system (kW)
W

average of the sample
X
Xi
certain point in the sample
Dpt
total pressure difference between air intake and exhaust
of the motor-fan installation (Pa)
Dpt(mCar) total pressure difference between air intake and exhaust
of the motor-fan installation (mCar)
c
specic weight of the air in the test temperature (N/m3)
gtotal
total efciency of the motor-fan installation
t
specic volume of the refrigerant (m3/kg)
qref
specic mass of the refrigerant (kg/m3)
q
specic mass of air in the temperature of the test (kg/
m3)
r
standard deviation of the sample

These facts can be seen in Fig. 1 and 2 which show the variation
in temperature and relative humidity between a maximum and a
minimum during the year of 2012 in the city of Guaratinguet-SP
[5].
It is observed that the minimum relative humidity in the afternoon, come to be close to 20% in some seasons. During the night,
due to the decrease of temperature, relative humidity increases
to values close to 100%.
These observations indicate that there is a tendency of change
in behavior of the coefcient of performance (COP) of an air conditioning system, because since the conditions for heat exchange
vary, certainly the performance also suffers variation.
3. Refrigeration system by steam compression
The air conditioning by steam compression can be done by the
conditioning of the air through a system composed by a compressor, a condenser, an expansion valve or a capillary tube and an
evaporator.
The steam compression cycle is the most used in practice.
Among its main advantages is the possibility of equipment being
built in small volumes compared to other systems and their high
performance, known in literature as the coefcient of performance
(COP). Due to its portability and low cost is easily found in homes
and businesses.
Before an evaluation of the performance of a refrigeration cycle
can be done, efciency should be dened. However, the index is
not called efciency because this term is usually reserved to describe the ratio between the amount of energy obtained by the
amount of energy expended. This ratio can lead to misinterpretations if applied to a refrigeration system, since the outgoing energy
in the condenser, is generally lost. The concept of the performance
index of a refrigeration cycle is the same as the efciency in the
sense that it represents, as shown in the following equation:

COP

Amount of what you want

Amount spent to obtain the desire amount

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P.M. Sobrinho, C.E. Tuna / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 49 (2013) 152159

Fig. 1. Minimun and maximum temperature of the city of Guaratinguet-Sp in 2012.

Fig. 2. Maximum and minimum relative humidity of the of Guaratinguet-Sp in 2012.

The performance of a refrigeration cycle is denominated coefcient of efcacy or coefcient of performance (COP) and is dened
by the following equation: [6].

COP

useful cooling
useful work

The heat exchangers are important elements in the denition of

energy efciency and size of refrigeration and air conditioning systems. In these applications, the heat exchangers used are called
condensers and evaporators. Many researchers have been working
in technology development and in order to increase the performance of heat exchangers, particularly the air side [7].
There are many publications on heat exchangers, in which they
present correlations to determine the coefcient of convective heat
transfer and the friction factor of the ow. Normally the Nusselt
number (convective heat transfer) is correlated with the Reynolds

number (ow) and Prandtl number (properties of the uid), while

the friction factor are correlated only with the Reynolds number.
Shah and Focke [8] and Saunders [9] offer some correlations for different geometries of plates which are correlated various parameters.
Kim et al. [10], studied the effects of humidity in the coefcient
of nned heat transfer, where the inlet air temperature was 12 C
and relative humidity ranging from 60% to 90%. In this study it is
concluded that the coefcient of heat transfer varies with the
velocity, angle of the n and the relative humidity of the inlet air
ow.
As the ns are important to the increasing of the heat transfer
and heat exchange, the tube-n are commonly used for cooling,
several researchers have investigated the effect of the thermal
properties of these variables on performance.
Threlkeld [11] studied the efcacy of ns, which has developed
an analytical expression to the overall efciency of the n using the

P.M. Sobrinho, C.E. Tuna / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 49 (2013) 152159

potential of the enthalpies for a combined heat and mass transfer.

He also assumed a linear relationship between the ambient air
temperature and saturated air temperature. The model showed
that the ns efciency was affected by relative air humidity.
In other studies made by Webb and Wu [12], Threlkeld [11],
Wang et al. [13] and McLaughin et al. [14], concluded that the
transfer coefcient of sensible heat transfer of a nned surface in
contact with humid air and with the presence of condensation is
the same or similar that when there is no condensation.
Bourabaa et al. [15], in their work on nding the inuence of inlet conditions on the air side of an evaporator, found that the heat
transfer coefcients increase with the rise of relative humidity
indicating that the latent heat transfer is a very signicant portion
under dehumidifying conditions.
The relationship between weather conditions and frost layer
growth and the relationship between frost layer growth, weather,
and overall heat transfer coefcients were studied by Monaghan
et al. [16]. They found that normal uctuations in weather conditions (wind, specic humidity and temperature) have a stronger effect on heat transfer coefcients than the state of the frost layer.
Enshen [17] noted in a study of the inuence of outside air
humidity that the annual heating or cooling energy consumption
by temperature humidity control is higher than or equal to that
by temperature control and there exists a close relationship between the absolute increment of energy consumption and absolute
humidity of outside air. The absolute increase in cooling energy
consumption increases with increasing air humidity, whereas
there is a decrease in the consumption of heating energy and both
have good linear relationship.
Yoo and Lee [18] in an experimental study on performance of
automotive condenser and evaporator observed that the overall
heat transfer coefcient of evaporator increases as air ow rate,
air temperature and relative humidity increases. The cooling
capacity at relative humidity of 70% is 23% higher than that at relative humidity of 50%. High relative humidity causes high air temperature across the evaporator, and consequently high refrigerant
ow. Wang et al. [19] obtained similar results in their experiments
with an automotive air conditioning system, wherein the cooling
capacity and COP of the system increases with the increase of
the evaporator air inlet temperature.
The inuence of condenser airow and its temperature on the
performance of an air conditioning unit and its compressor power
consumption has been investigated and presented at different
evaporator cooling load by Elsayed and Hariri [20]. It has been
found that a 10% reduction in compressor power consumption is
achieved by increasing the condenser air ow by about 50%.
Studying the coefcient of performance (COP) of air-cooled
chillers, Yang et al. [21] found in their results that the COP of the
chiller can be changed by various degrees depending on the weather and load conditions.
The convective heat transfer from a cylinder to a humid air
stream owing normal to the cylinder was investigated experimentally at atmospheric pressure over a range of variables by Still
et al. [22]. In this work it was found that the heat transfer increased
with increasing humidity. The ratio of heat transfer rates in humid
air and dry air is a unique function of the molar fraction of water
vapor, independent of the air temperature and ow velocity.
Xu and Yang [23] investigated the inuence of outdoor air temperature and humidity on a heat-pump air conditioning system
driven by gas engine in order to improve its energy performance
by using the waste heat from the gas engine. They found that with
the rising of the outdoor air dry-bulb temperature and the relative
humidity, the energy saving percentage also rises.
In the case of this study, air-cooled condenser is used, which is
characterized by the transfer of heat absorbed directly to the outside air.

155

Fig. 3. Variation of the heat transfer coefcient inside a pipe where occurs complete
condensation of the overheated steam.

In a normal condition and operation of the project (maximum

load of the system), the refrigerant is approximately 1416 C warmer than the air outside.
Compared with a water condenser, the air cooled system requires a greater difference in temperature between the refrigerant
and outside air. Although this characteristic makes them less energy efcient, its simple design allows lower installation costs
and maintenance. For this reason is that the vast majority of residential equipment from 5 TRs (17,585 kW, 60.000 Btu/h) to commercial 50 TRs (17,585 kW, 600.000 Btu/h) uses air condensers.
With manufacturers increasingly seeking to build compact
models, the air condenser, with the ns very close, retains a lot
of dust, dirt, hair, etc. If not cleaned regularly come to work with
high discharge pressures and temperatures, the main cause of
the defects of the compressors in these devices.
For commercial equipment, it is necessary to increase the circulation of air through the condenser, due to the higher frequency of
door opening. This is achieved by an engine forcing air against the
nned.
In air condensers, the condensation occurs inside the tubes,
according to a relatively complex process. The variation of the coefcient of heat transfer along a tube in which complete condensation occurs is shown in Fig. 3.
At the entrance, the refrigerant is in overheated steam state,
presenting a relatively low coefcient typical of gas ow. The coefcient increases signicantly as the condensation proceeds in the
inner surface of the tube. However, from a particular section, there
is a progressive reduction of the coefcient of heat transfer due to
increased thickness of the condensate at the surface of the tube
and the consequent reduction of speed of uid ow in the cross
section [6].
4. Experimental procedures
This study presents the results of an experimental study conducted in a laboratory (LAMOTRIZ) test bench, which demonstrated the inuence of relative humidity on the coefcient of
performance of the refrigeration cycle using a compressor rotating
spiral (scroll) with frequency inverter, in which gas compression is
possible due to the eccentricity of the mobile spiral which forms a
compression chamber within the compressor housing.
The test bench (Fig. 4) consists of the following equipment:

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P.M. Sobrinho, C.E. Tuna / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 49 (2013) 152159

Fig. 4. Bench test (LAMOTRIZ, UNESP-campus Guaratinguet).

Fig. 5. Window of the supervisory control of the testing bench.

02 frequency inverters;
01 CLP:
01 meter multifunction, precision: 0.5%;
01 three-phase asynchronous motor 2 poles, 1 hp (1134 W),
220/380 V type high performance;
01 Fan, axial ow 5000 Nm3/h, pressure 24 mmCA, eight blades
distributed symmetrically, design pressure coefcient of 0.18,
about 0.43 cube, outside diameter of 350 mm and the tip clearance of 10 mm, driven directly by an electric motor;
01 differential pressure transducer, pressure range 0300 mm
H2O, accuracy: 0.5%;

01 pressure transmitter manifold capacitive type, pressure

range 0300 psi, 24 VDC, 0.5% accuracy, protection IP 65, the
output signal 420 mA with digital local indication;
01 pressure transmitter manifold capacitive type, pressure
range 0500 psi, 24 VDC, 0.5% accuracy, protection IP 65, the
output signal 420 mA with digital local indication;
02 Pressure gauge, reversible contact with 5A, range 0100 psi;
02 Pressure gauge, reversible contact with 5A, range 0485 psi;
01 air conditioning compressor, hermetic piston type with a
capacity of around 26,297 BTU/h (7700 W), three-phase motor
of 1.49 kW (nominal) for refrigerant R-22;

P.M. Sobrinho, C.E. Tuna / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 49 (2013) 152159
Table 1
Experimental uncertainties (l).
Greatness

Atmospheric pressure
Cross sectional area of the workbench
Power of electric motors
Difference in air pressure
Differential pressure of the refrigerant
Air velocity
Airow
Flow rate of refrigerant
Air temperature
Refrigerant temperature
Specic mass of air
Specic mass of refrigerant

0.5 mmHg
0.0005 m2
3.5 W
0.09 mm H2O
0.09 psi
0.03 m/s
0.03 Nm3/s
0.012 Nm3/s
0.3 C
0.1 C
0.58 kg/m3
0.3 kg/m3

Table 2
Standard deviation (r), variance and average for the motor-fan.

r
S

X

4.2. Methodology
The electrical power, such as compressors and fans, are all directly measured by instruments previously described. The volumetric ow rate of refrigerant of the air conditioning system is
directly measured by a ow meter and the coefcient of performance (COP) of the cycle of vapor compression refrigeration is given by Eq. (3) [24].

ER
Q_ R

_
_
Wcomp:
Wcomp

Pressure difference (mmH2O)

Power demand (W)

COP

21.00
447.00
1185.00

0.29
0.08
25.00

1.58
2.50
1338.00

For the system studied, considering all the energy ows involved, the COP is given by Eq. (4) [25].

In the study, the wet bulb temperature was ranged, keeping the
rotation of the scroll compressor by applying a frequency inverter
in its best performance. All tests were performed under conditions
where they were kept constant barometric local pressure
(712 mmHg (95 kPa)), the dry bulb temperature of the air ranged
from 22 C to 27 C, and relative humidity in a range between
40% and 92%.
The air ow system, derived from an axial fan, was kept constant with the engine at 60 Hz, providing an average air ow of
1250 Nm3/h. The test bench is provided with supervisory system
(InduSoft) data collection capable of measuring up to 102 variables
four times per second. Fig. 3 shows the test bench which includes
the air conditioning installation.
4.1. Software used to control the supervisory system
All functions of the bench, even a simple command on and off,
to vary the speed of the engines, the opening of the damper, the

Table 3
Standard deviation (r), variance and average for scroll compressor.

compressors on and off, opening and closing a relief valve, etc.,

Everything is done by a supervisory system. These are made possible thanks to a software that is behind the gure simple and
friendly of the supervisory system, that displays on the computer
screen, performs complex mathematical functions, multiple times
per second, so that everything goes as desired.
Fig. 5 illustrates the command window of the supervisory system (InduSoft) of the test bench.

Flow rate (Nm3/h)

01 air conditioning compressor, scroll type (rotary), with a

capacity of around 26,297 BTU/h (7700 W), three-phase motor
of 1.62 kW (nominal) for refrigerant R-22;
02 Transmitters of temperature range 0200 C, type PT input
signal 100 and output signal of 420 mA;
01 Condensing Unit, 24,000 BTU/h (7034.4 W);
01 Evaporator, 24,000 BTU/h (7034.4 W);
01 Flow Meter;
01 dry bulb thermometer
01 wet bulb thermometer
01 Expansion valve.
01 transducer speed and air temperature, speed range: 0.1
20 m/s accuracy 0.03 m/s, temperature range: 050 C
Accuracy 0.3 C, analog output 420 mA;
01 Capillary tube.

S

X

157

System COP

Cycle COP

Power demand (W)

0.12
0.0143
2.35

0.82
0.6806
4.79

349.00
121783
1455.86

COP

ER
Q_ R

_
_
_
_
Wcomp: Wfan Wfan:cond: Wtotal

The cooling effect or thermal load, that is the ow of heat absorbed by the refrigerant is calculated from Eq. (5) [26].

ER

dm
dV
1 dV
dhEVA qref
hs  he EVA
h  h
dt
dt
t dt s e EVA

The variation of enthalpy of the refrigerant is obtained indirectly. For this purpose, measurements are made of temperature
and pressure of the uid before and after the evaporator and then
insert these data into a software called CATT3 (Computer Aided
Thermodynamic Table 3) or in thermodynamic tables to obtain
the values of specic enthalpy [26]. The temperatures and pressures were obtained by instruments described in Section 4.
The specic volume is also obtained in CATT3, analogously to
the enthalpy values.
The electrical power drive of the motor-fan can be expressed by
Eq. (6) [27]. This parameter was determined and compared with
the one that has been measured directly by the instruments of
the bench tests to estimate the total performance of all.

Pel

c  Q  DptmCar
gtotal

The average ow of the air was calculated by multiplying the

average velocity and cross-sectional area of ow. The maximum
air ow was measured by a transducer that is placed in the center
of the cross section located in the exhaust of bench tests. The prole
section of the exhaust duct is a square with an area of 0.1681 m2.
From this we calculated the average speed, which for the range of
Reynolds number between 1.4  104 and 7.8  104 correction factor calculated average was 0.81 ([28]). Also, for the universalization
of results, since the tests were performed with dry bulb temperature of the environment around 23 C and barometric pressure
averaging 712 mmHg (95 kPa), the volumetric ow rate average
was reduced to the normal condition (0 C and 760 mmHg). The
Eq. (7) denes the difference in total pressure of the air.

Dpt q  g  Hp q:

V2
2

The specic mass of the uid considered ideal gas, a function of

temperature and pressure was determined by the following
equation:

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P.M. Sobrinho, C.E. Tuna / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 49 (2013) 152159

p
RT

Based on Holman [29] and Cruz et al. [30] were determined the
uncertainty (l) of each primary measure, i.e., obtained without calculation, directly from the instrument, and from these were calculated the uncertainty of results, all shown in Table 1.
From ten trials, referring to a type of experiment was calculated
the median of the data and generated a single point. This procedure
was repeated until all the results of the experiment were obtained.
The average standard deviation (r) as shown by Eq. (9), and variance, as shown by Eq. (10) were calculated based on Costa Neto
[31]. Table 2 presents the results for the motorfan and Table 3
for the compressor.

s
Pn
 2
i1 X i  X
r
n  1
Pn
S

 2
 X
n  1

i1 X i

Fig. 7. Variation of the COP of the system due to the variation of relative humidity
of inlet air.

10

5. Results
According to Stoecker [6], in equipments with air condensation,
the cooling capacity depends mainly on the dry bulb temperature
of ambient air and the air ow through the condenser. As the condensing temperature increases with the increasing of the ambient
temperature, the cooling capacity decreases with the increase of
the evaporation temperature.
However, in the test results obtained and presented in Figs. 6
and 7 it can be noted that the relative humidity also has a signicant inuence on the system, because it has inuence on the heat
transfer coefcient responsible for the performance of the system,
as indicated in the results obtained by Bourabaa et al. [15], Still et
al. [22], and Yoo and Lee [18].
In addition, Figs. 8 and 9 show that the relative humidity inuence on the amount of heat removed from the airow passing
through the evaporator and not on the amount of work done by
the compressor. Fig. 10 shows that the dry bulb temperature of inlet air does not inuence the COP of the system.
Tests were performed from June to November, where it was
possible to characterize the behavior of an air conditioning system
during the winter period, which has a low relative humidity, and
during rains period, where has a high relative humidity. The dry
bulb temperature and wet bulb and relative humidity varied
depending on the environmental conditions of each day of
measurement.

Fig. 8. Variation of the heat removed from air to the variation of relative humidity
of inlet air.

Fig. 9. Variation of the compressor work due to the variation of relative humidity of
inlet air.

Fig. 6. Variation of the COP of the system due to the wet bulb temperature of inlet
air.

Analyzing the results, it can be identied that there is an inuence of humidity on the COP of the system, identifying that for low
air humidity condition the performance of air conditioning system
has a 40% drop in its efciency. When it is considered a wet bulb
temperature at the air inlet, it has the same falling of only 3 C
apart.
This reects that the performance of the air condenser, which
suffers direct inuence of the variation of the lm coefcient as a
function of the relative humidity, is contrary to the behavior of
evaporative condensers, where the increase in wet bulb temperature reduces the efciency of the system [6], because the heat to

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159

References

Fig. 10. Variation of the COP of the system due to the variation of the dry bulb
temperature of inlet air.

be dissipated by the condenser becomes larger due to the effect of

water in the system. In this case, there is a correction factor for the
capacity of the condenser which varies depending on the condensing temperature and wet bulb temperature reference, reducing the
efciency of the system, if the wet bulb temperature exceeds the
temperature of the project.
It should be noted that in the present study was not considered
the effect of altitude on the relative humidity and on the performance of the air conditioning system. This inuence is described
by Fumo et al. [32], which show equations relating the altitude
with the air density, with the relative humidity and the wet bulb
temperature. It also equates the inuence of altitude in combustion process and heat exchange in thermal equipments.

6. Conclusion
In this paper an experimental analysis was performed on an air
conditioning system, where was evaluated the inuence of relative
air humidity on system performance, as in the literature, for air
conditioning systems where air condensers are employed, it is
not considered this issue but only the dry bulb temperature in
the analysis of those systems.
In the results obtained in bench, was identied that within the
range 4065% RH does not have large variations in system performance. However, from this value the modifying of the system performance is quite signicant, reaching the range of 70%, for the
cases where the test is performed on rainy days where the RH
was high.
For the case that consider for analysis the wet bulb temperature
in the evaluation of system performance, it was not identied large
variations in the range of 1620 C, however, above this temperature, it was noted that system performance becomes greater.
Considering that in the region and period that the analysis was
performed, it was possible to identify that the RH have some inuence on the system performance, however, as most of the time the
climatic characteristics are not more than 65% of RH, it can conclude
that the consideration of using only the dry bulb temperature to
evaluate the performance of a system cannot be disqualied.
It is suggested as a continuation of this work, that tests should be
carried out during the summer where humidity is still higher, so
that the cycle is completed and it can be possible to raise the performance of an air conditioning system during a whole year. Another
suggestion is to develop an analysis of system performance, by
the installation of an air humidier in front of the condenser fan.

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