Evaluation on Cycle Performance of R161 as a Drop-in Replacement for R407C in Small-Scale Air Conditioning Systems

• Published in: Journal of thermal science Vol. 31; no. 6; pp. 2068 - 2076
• Main Authors: Fang, Yibo, Wu, Mei, Guo, Zhikai, Ni, Hang, Han, Xiaohong, Chen, Guangming
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.11.2022; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Air conditioning; Classical and Continuum Physics; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Engineering Thermodynamics; Heat and Mass Transfer; Performance evaluation; Physics; Physics and Astronomy; Power consumption; Thermodynamic properties; Working fluids; R407C; drop-in replacement; R161; small-scale air conditioning system
• ISSN: 1003-2169; 1993-033X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11630-022-1678-6

In this work, with excellent environmental characteristics and thermodynamic properties, R161 is considered as a drop-in replacement of R407C used in small-scale air conditioning systems. In order to study the potential of R161 in the application, the theoretical and experimental cycle performances of R161 and R407C were compared under different working conditions. The experimental results agreed well with theoretical results. In the experiment, COPs of R161 were about 15% higher than those of R407C. The compressor power consumptions of R161 were about 18% lower than those of R407C. The discharge temperatures of R161 were about 0–4°C lower than those of R407C. Besides, the annual electric consumption of a small-scale split air conditioning in Beijing, Shanghai and Hongkong could be reduced by about 19.5%, when the working fluid was changed from R407C to R161. Overall, the results indicated that R161 has a better cycle performance and good compatibility with the existing systems designed for R407C.