The influence of thermal energy storage (TEGS) of coupling new hybrid system of two phase change materials
(PCMs) with air conditioning (A/C) unit on its cooling and heating performance in summer and winter,
respectively is investigated. PCM RT 10 HC (PCM10HC) of 10-12◦C phase change temperature and PCM type SP
24E (PCM24E) of about 24-25◦C phase change temperature suitable for working on winter and summer climate
conditions, respectively are integrated as a hybrid system and coupled with the condenser/evaporator of the A/C
unit. The performance of the A/C unit of this hybrid system is compared with the unit performance using only
PCM24E system in summer and PCM10HC system in winter. The study is studied at two configurations of the
hybrid PCMs system. The studied physical systems are modeled by a complete mathematical model that is
numerically solved by utilizing ANSYS-Fluent software. The solution numerically is validated by using an
experimental setup which shows the high accuracy of the numerical solution. The findings based on the stated
design conditions of Egypt demonstrate that the time of complete charging and discharging procedures is nearly
the same for hybrid and single PCMs systems. The maximum increase of the A/C unit COP is about 88% for the
hybrid system in summer while it is nearly 22% in winter. The percentage increase of the saving power for the
single system, the hybrid system is about 6.85%, and 6.5%, respectively in summer and 3.9% and 2.8% in winter,
respectively compared to A/C without PCM units. Increasing the distance between the PCMs’ plates impacts
negatively on the exit air temperature from PCMs plates and the saving power. The results demonstrate that the
hybrid system has nearly the same merits on the A/C working as the single systems plus it can work during the
hot and cold climate conditions. |
