Open Access

ARTICLE

Modification and Experimental Verification of the Performance Improvement of Domestic Dehumidifiers

by Xin Qi^1,2, Xingtao Shi¹, Yingwen Liu^1,*

1 Key Laboratory of Thermo-Fluid Science and Engineering of MOE, School of Energy and Power Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, 710049, China
2 China Household Electric Appliance Research Institute, Beijing, 100037, China

* Corresponding Author: Yingwen Liu. Email:

(This article belongs to the Special Issue: Microscale Heat and Mass Transfer and Efficient Energy Conversion)

Frontiers in Heat and Mass Transfer 2024, 22(6), 1661-1678. https://doi.org/10.32604/fhmt.2024.058959

Received 25 September 2024; Accepted 19 November 2024; Issue published 19 December 2024

Abstract

After optimizing the compressor design, condenser tube diameter, and tube row arrangement, air supply volumetric flow rate, and refrigerant charge of the domestic dehumidifier. The optimized design schemes were obtained from the original combinations by non-dominated sorting, and the optimized design schemes were experimentally verified under three environmental conditions according to the test method of T/CAS 342-2020 to obtain a complete idea of dehumidifier multi-component improvement. The results show that the dehumidifying capacity of Scheme 5 is slightly increased by 2.5% at 27°C/60% RH, and its energy factor is significantly increased by 24.6%. When the air supply volumetric flow rate was increased from 210 to 268 m³·h⁻¹, the air supply temperature was reduced by 1.7°C, improving comfort. Under environmental conditions with higher dehumidification demand, i.e., at 35°C/90% RH, the energy factor of Scheme 4 can reach 4.3 L·kW⁻¹·h⁻¹, which is 34.4% higher than the original scheme, and the gap is further widened. The application of the 5 mm tube diameter condenser in dehumidifiers reduces the amount of refrigerant charge by 25.9%, reduces the cost by 7.5%, and strengthens the heat transfer effect and the homogeneity of the two-phase mixing, which shows the great application potential.

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Keywords

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