CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

As global temperatures rises around the world, thermal comfort in buildings, has
become a major concern in commercial buildings and homes, it can affect the
efficiency and productivity of workers. With the development of national economy
and the improvement of living standard, the requirement of air conditioner increases
very quickly to make a comfortable environment for living and working, which also
affect the efficiency and productivity of occupants while they are at work. Due to
this reason, air conditioners are now becoming a standard accessory for household
application. Some multi-system air conditioners have been developed to satisfy the
need of several rooms in residential and light commercial buildings. It accounts for
a major share of the energy consumption of a building or facility. Energy efficiency
for air conditioners has received increasing attention in recent years with the intense
emphasis on environmental concern and high energy consumption. As the main
energy consumption component of air conditioner, compressor needs further work
to accomplish the transition of performance evaluation from one operation condition
to its actual usage. Due to increment in energy consumption and prices, the need for
less energy consumption has become a global concern. The Energy consumption for
air-conditioning in buildings accounts almost 50 per cent of the total energy
consumption. It has been acknowledged that 30 per cent of worldwide energy
consumption is due to refrigeration and air conditioning installations, and therefore
these systems has a large impact on energy demand. For this reason, it has been an
aim of many researchers to improve on conventional air conditioning systems, as
this would result in a significant energy economy. Improving the energy efficiency
of air conditioner is one of the fruitful strategies implemented in tackling energy
shortage and thermal issues.

1.2 PROBLEM STATEMENT

In sub Saharan Africa, due to the inefficiency and high energy consumption of the
conventional air conditioner system regularly used, a more efficient technology
which is the inverter air conditioner was recently introduced as a better option for
air conditioning. The inverter air conditioner, being a very recent technology and
having a slight high initial price, is quite uncommon in the society, and this has made
its installation, usage, maintenance and repair a bit complicated to most consumers,
as there are few skilled technicians experienced in its installation and services.

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A working tool on installation analysis, usage and maintenance of an inverter air
conditioner can be used in breaching the gap and creating awareness to consumers
on the untapped potentials of its operation and maintenance, for a better thermal
performance and lesser energy consumption.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

The main objective of this project is to design, analyze, and install an inverter air
conditioner unit and the project will achieve the following sub-objective
 To design an inverter air conditioner system that is able to control temperature
accurately while considering saving energy consumption.
 To analyze the economic impact and effect of inverter air conditioner energy
saving performances during daily hours of operations
 To analyze the economic benefits of an inverter air conditioner in term of
interest rate and effect of cost of repair and maintenance features.
 To analyze the performance and efficiency of the cooling system in term of
the rate of heat transfer and power consumption of an inverter split air
condition.
 To install an inverter split air conditioner that is efficient in its operating costs
reduced by at least 10%.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROJECT

The inverter air conditioner system offers a less noisy operation while maintaining
its energy saving capability. With inverter technology, the air conditioner can vary
its power output to precisely maintain room temperature. It also enables high
powered startup which enables fast cooling up to 25% faster than conventional air
conditioner.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT
The scope of the study is to design analyze and install an inverter air conditioner unit
taking into consideration the economic impact, economic benefit and the
performance efficiency of the cooling system of an inverter air conditioner unit as
compared with the convention air conditioner unit .