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Refrigerator and Air-Conditioner Condensers: Condenser Condenser

There are three main types of condensers used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems: 1) Air cooled condensers, which are used in small household appliances and rely on fans to blow air over coils to condense refrigerant. 2) Water cooled condensers, used for larger commercial systems, which rely on circulating water to absorb heat from refrigerant flowing within coils. 3) Evaporative condensers, typically used in ice plants, which combine aspects of air cooled and water cooled condensers by spraying water over coils to cool and condense refrigerant through evaporation.

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4K views

Refrigerator and Air-Conditioner Condensers: Condenser Condenser

There are three main types of condensers used in refrigeration and air conditioning systems: 1) Air cooled condensers, which are used in small household appliances and rely on fans to blow air over coils to condense refrigerant. 2) Water cooled condensers, used for larger commercial systems, which rely on circulating water to absorb heat from refrigerant flowing within coils. 3) Evaporative condensers, typically used in ice plants, which combine aspects of air cooled and water cooled condensers by spraying water over coils to cool and condense refrigerant through evaporation.

Uploaded by

Kifayat Ullah
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Refrigerator and Air-conditioner Condensers

There are three types of condensers: air cooled, water cooled and
evaporative. These have been described below.
1) Air cooled condensers: Air cooled condensers are used in small units
like household refrigerators, deep freezers, water coolers, window airconditioners, split air-conditioners, small packaged air-conditioners etc.
These are used in plants where the cooling load is small and the total
quantity of the refrigerant in the refrigeration cycle is small. Air cooled
condensers are also called coil condensers as they are usually made of
copper or aluminum coil. Air cooled condensers occupy a comparatively
larger space than water cooled condensers.
Air cooled condensers are of two types: natural convection and forced
convection. In the natural convection type, the air flows over it in natural a
way depending upon the temperature of the condenser coil. In the forced air
type, a fan operated by a motor blows air over the condenser coil.
2) Water cooled condensers: Water cooled condensers are used for large
refrigerating plants, big packaged air-conditioners, central air-conditioning
plants, etc. These are used in plants where cooling loads are excessively high
and a large quantity of refrigerant flows through the condenser.
There are three types of water cooled condensers: tube-in-tube or double
pipe type, shell and coil type and shell and tube type. In all these condensers
the refrigerant flows through one side of the piping while the water flows
through the other piping, cooling the refrigerant and condensing it.
3) Evaporative condensers: Evaporative condensers are usually used in
ice plants. They are a combination of water cooled and air cooled
condensers. In these condensers the hot refrigerant flows through the coils.
Water is sprayed over these coils. At the same time the fan draws air from
the bottom side of the condenser and discharges it from the top side of
the condenser. The spray water that comes in contact with
the condenser coil gets evaporated in the air and it absorbs the heat from
the condenser, cools the refrigerant and condenses it.
Evaporative condensers have the benefits of water cooled as well as air
cooled condenser, hence it occupies less space. However, keeping the

evaporative condenser clean and free of scale is very difficult and requires
lots of maintenance. Hence they are not favored by HVAC designers.
The three types of condensers are shown schematically in Fig. 7.1a, 7.1b,
and 7.1c. The air-cooled condenser in Fig. 7.1a condenses refrigerant vapor
by rejecting heat to ambient air blown over the finned condenser coil with
the aid of a fan, usually a propeller type.

FIGURE 7.1: Types of condensers: (a) air-cooled, (b) water-cooled and (c)
evaporative.
Most all water-cooled condensers (Fig. 7.1b) condense refrigerant in the shell
and on the outside of tubes through which water passes. The condenser
cooling water picks up heat in passing through the condenser and this warm
water is cooled by circulating through a cooling tower (Section 7.6). While
the shell-and-tube construction predominates for water-cooled condensers,
plate-type condensers, sister of the plate-type evaporator explained in Sec.
6.31, are now appearing. The evaporative condenser of Fig. 7.1c might be
considered a cooling tower, with the condenser tubes washed by the water
spray. Ultimately, the heat rejected from the refrigeration plant is discharged
to ambient air, except where the condenser is cooled...

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