international journal of refrigeration 32 (2009) 19291931

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Short Communication

The coefcient of performance of an ideal air conditioner

G. Venkatarathnam*
Refrigeration and Airconditioning Laboratory, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai 600036, India

article info
Article history: Received 13 March 2009 Received in revised form 20 June 2009 Accepted 22 June 2009 Published online 1 July 2009 Keywords: Air conditioning Cooling system COP

abstract
In this paper we present the expression for the COP of an ideal air conditioner in terms of the temperature of air at the inlet and outlet of the air conditioner. 2009 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.

Coefcient de performance dun conditionneur dair ideal

s ` Mots cle : Conditionnement dair ; Systeme de refroidissement ; COP

1.

Introduction

The Carnot cycle is normally used as the reference cycle for comparing the performance of different refrigerators. In many cases, the Carnot refrigerator is also used as the reference cycle for air conditioners by beginners. There have also been instances of the Carnot refrigeration cycle being used as reference cycle by experienced people. The temperature of air

leaving the refrigerator is considered as the refrigeration temperature to determine the coefcient of performance (COP) of an ideal air conditioner. Consider two air conditioners which deliver cold air at the same temperature, but receive warm air from the room at different temperatures. The above procedure will lead to identical COP in spite of the two air conditioners being different. There is a need to express the COP of ideal air conditioners in terms of the temperatures of

* Tel.: 91 44 2257 4685; fax: 91 44 2257 6685. E-mail address: gvenkat@iitm.ac.in 0140-7007/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2009.06.010

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international journal of refrigeration 32 (2009) 19291931

Nomenclature COP h h0 _ m _ Q0 _ Q s so Ta Coefcient of performance (-) Enthalpy of air (J/kg) Enthalpy of air at reference state (J/kg) mass ow rate of air Heat rejected by the refrigerator (W) Heat absorbed by the refrigerator (W) Entropy of air (J/Kg K) Entropy of air at reference state (J/Kg K) Ambient temperature (K)

TAC Tin Tout TR _ W

Equivalent temperature of an ideal air conditioner (Eq. (13)) (K) Temperature of air entering an air conditioner (K) Temperature of air leaving an air conditioner (K) Refrigeration temperature (K) Power input to a refrigerator/air conditioner (W)

Subscripts AC Air conditioner Ideal Ideal refrigerator/air conditioner R Refrigerator

air entering as well as leaving an air conditioner. The paper is aimed at fullling a pedagogical need felt by the author while explaining the differences between constant and variable temperature refrigeration to freshmen.

Similarly, the expression for the minimum work of an ideal air conditioner can be derived in terms of the enthalpy and entropy of the air at the inlet and exit of the air conditioner from the rst and second laws of thermodynamics as follows: Air conditioner: First law: _ _ _ _ _ Q 0 Q Wideal;AC mhin hout Wideal;AC Second law: (4)

2. Coefcient of performance of ideal refrigerator and air conditioner

The main difference between an ideal refrigerator such as Carnot and an ideal air conditioner (Fig. 1) is in the refrigeration temperature. Refrigeration is provided by an ideal refrigerator at constant temperature, while the temperature of air changes between inlet and outlet in an air conditioner. In other words, an air conditioner is a good example of a variable temperature refrigerator since the temperature of air varies during the cooling process. The power input to an ideal constant temperature refrigerator can be derived in terms of refrigeration temperature (TR) and the ambient temperature (Ta) using the rst and second laws of thermodynamics as follows: Constant temperature refrigerator: First law: _ _ _ Q 0 Q Wideal;R Second law: _ _ Q0 Q 0 Ta TR or _ Wideal;R  _ Ta 1 Q TR  (3) (2) (1)

_ Q0 _ msout sin 0 Ta _ _ _ Wideal;AC mhout hin mTa sout sin Or _ _ Wideal;AC mexout exin

(5)

(6)

(7)

In the above expression ex is the exergy of air and is given by the expression: ex h Ta s h0 Ta s0 (8)

In the above expression h and s refer to the enthalpy and entropy of air at given pressure and temperature, and ho and so that at reference pressure and temperature. Ta refers to the ambient temperature. The coefcient of performance (COP) of an ideal refrigerator can be obtained using Eq. (4) as follows: COPideal;R _ Q TR _ ideal;R Ta TR W (9)

Ta

Ta

The COP of an ideal refrigerator is independent of the refrigerant or the cycle (Carnot, Stirling, Ericsson etc.). The coefcient of performance of an ideal air conditioner can now be obtained using Eq. (7) as follows: COPideal;AC _ _ Q mhin hout _ _ Wideal;AC mexout exin (10)

Q W Q
TR Air in T in

Q
Air out Tout

The above expression can be simplied using Eq. (8) as follows: COPideal;AC _ Q TAC _ Wideal;AC Ta TAC (11)

Refrigerator

Air conditioner

Fig. 1 Refrigerator and air conditioner.

Where TAC is the equivalent refrigeration temperature of an air conditioner and is dened as follows:

international journal of refrigeration 32 (2009) 19291931

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a
3 2

b
3 2

Temperature

Temperature

Temperature

Constant pressure

1 4 Constant pressure

Entropy

Entropy

Entropy
Fig. 3 Ideal air conditioner cooling air from ambient temperature (T1) to a low temperature (T3).

Fig. 2 Ideal refrigerator cycle (a) and an ideal air conditioner cycle (b) in which air is cooled from a temperature below ambient to a further lower temperature.

TAC

hin hout sin sout

(12)

The air cooled in an air conditioner can be considered as an ideal uid, and the specic heat at constant pressure of air assumed to be constant and independent of temperature. The above expression can then be simplied as follows: TAC Tin Tout   Tin ln Tout (13)

The equivalent refrigeration temperature of an air conditioner is thus the logarithmic mean of the temperature of air entering and leaving the air conditioner. When the above expression for the equivalent refrigeration temperature (TAC) is substituted in the expression for the COP of an ideal air conditioner [Eq. (11)], the COP would be dependent only on the ambient temperature and the temperature of air entering and leaving the air conditioner, and is independent of the refrigerant or the thermodynamic cycle used for cooling air.

3.

Example

Consider an ideal air conditioner in which air is cooled from 298 K to 288 K. Let the ambient temperature be 308 K. The equivalent temperature of the air conditioner can be estimated using Eq. (13) as 292.97 K and the COP of an ideal air conditioner can be estimated using Eq. (11) as 19.49. On the other hand, the COP of a Carnot refrigerator operating between 308 K and 288 K is 14.4 (Eq. (9)). The ideal air conditioner in the above example would require 26% less work compared to a Carnot refrigerator. While evaluating different air conditioners, it is therefore important to compare the performance of an actual air conditioner with that of an ideal air conditioner whose COP is given by Eq. (11). The reasons for the difference between the two COPs can be appreciated from Fig. 2 which shows an ideal refrigerator cycle and an ideal air conditioner cycle. The constant temperature expansion of an ideal refrigerator is replaced by a constant pressure heating in the case of an ideal air conditioner, resulting in a smaller compressor power input for an ideal air conditioner (area of the trapezium 1234 in Fig. 2b) compared to that of an ideal refrigerator (area of rectangle 1234 in Fig. 2a). When air is cooled from ambient temperature

to a low temperature (as in the case of fresh air or ventilation air), the area of an ideal air conditioner cycle on a temperature-entropy diagram (Fig. 2b) would be half of that of an ideal refrigerator (Fig. 2a). The ideal air conditioner cycle in that case would be a reverse Brayton cycle undergoing constant temperature compression, followed by an isentropic expansion and a constant pressure heat addition, as shown in Fig. 3. The expression for COP shown in Eq. (11) is applicable to cycles shown in Fig. 2b as well as Fig. 3. The inherent assumption in all the ideal cycles discussed above is that heat is rejected to ambient at a zero temperature difference between the refrigerant and the ambient (process 23). Similarly, in an ideal cycle it is assumed that the temperature difference between the refrigerant and the air (load) to be cooled is zero during the heat absorption (41) process. Consider a case where an ideal refrigeration cycle (Carnot cycle) is used to cool air from ambient to low temperature as in Fig. 3. The temperature of air will vary from T1 to T3, while that of the refrigerant is constant in the heat absorption process (process 41 in Fig. 2a). The temperature approach between the refrigerant and air would be zero only at state 3 during the heat addition process (34). Additional work input is required when heat is added at a nite non-zero temperature to overcome the irreversibilities during heat transfer. Hence the work required to cool the air would be more than that shown in Figs. 2b and 3 when an ideal Carnot cycle in which the refrigerant temperature is constant during heat absorption process (process 41 in Fig. 2) is used to cool air in an air conditioner. It is evident from the above discussion that different reference ideal cycles should be used for comparing constant and variable temperature refrigeration systems. It can also be seen from the example presented above that in most practical air conditioners the logarithmic mean temperature TAC can also be replaced by arithmetic mean [(Tin Tout)/2] without appreciable error.

4.

Conclusion

The COP of an ideal air conditioner has been derived in terms of an equivalent refrigeration temperature that is a logarithmic mean of the temperature of air entering and leaving an air conditioner. The expression should prove to be helpful in explaining the difference between constant and variable temperature refrigeration, particularly to students.