John R. Sherwin

Improving Best Air Conditioner Efficiency by 20-30% through a High Efficiency Fan and Diffuser Stage Coupled with an Evaporative Condenser Pre-Cooler

The Florida Solar Energy Center (FSEC) conducted a research project to improve the best residential air conditioner condenser technology currently available on the market by retrofitting a commercially-available unit with both a high efficiency fan system and an evaporative pre-cooler. The objective was to integrate these two concepts to achieve an ultra-efficient residential air conditioner design. The project produced a working prototype that was 30% more efficient compared to the best currently-available technologies; the peak the energy efficiency ratio (EER) was improved by 41%. Efficiency at the Air-Conditioning and Refrigeration Institute (ARI) standard B-condition which is used to estimate seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER), was raised from a nominal 21 Btu/Wh to 32 Btu/Wh.