Performance of A R22 split-air-conditioner when retrofitted with ozone friendly refrigerants (R410A and R417A)

R22 that has been used predominantly in air conditioning and in medium and low-temperature applications contains ozone depleting chlorine atoms and hence will be phased out eventually. This paper presents the experimental performance study of a split-air-conditioner using ozone friendly alternative refrigerants. The existing split-air-conditioner originally designed for R22 as the working fluid was retrofitted with R410A and R417A respectively, and the performance of the system was evaluated and compared with its performance when R22 was used. Experimental results showed that with R417A, the system had 1.9% higher refrigeration capacity and 14.2% lower with R410A when compared to that of R22. The average discharge pressure of the compressor obtained with R417A and R410A were 3.8% lower and 10.3% higher, respectively, than with R22. The lowest compressor power consumption and pressure ratio were obtained with the R417A retrofitted system. The average coefficient of performance (COP) obtained using R417A is 2.9% higher, while that of R410A is 8.4% lower than that of R22. Generally, with R417A the system consistently had the best performance in comparison to both R22 and R410A, indicating that R417A would be a better choice for retrofitting existing split-air-conditioners originally designed to use R22 as working fluid.