Thermal performance investigation of hybrid earth air tunnel heat exchanger

Abstract: Increasing the coefficient of performance of air-conditioner with air-cooled condenser is a challenging task especially in areas where weather conditions are quite hot. The performance of conventional vapour compression system based air-conditioners can substantially be improved by coupling these active cooling systems with less energy intense passive cooling systems. In the present research, an attempt has been made to enhance the performance of active cooling system by coupling it with EATHE in four different hybrid modes and thermal performance of the developed hybrid cooling system has been investigated experimentally. The power consumption of conventional 1.5 TR window type air conditioner is found to be reduced by 18.1% when cold air from EATHE is completely used for condenser cooling of the air-conditioner. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]