Air Conditioning & Refrigeration System

Refrigeration deals with the transfer of heat from a low temperature level at the heat source to a high temperature level at the heat sink by using a low boiling refrigerant.

Depending on applications, there are several types of equipments are available for use

as given below:

Air Conditioning

Window/Split/Package Air Conditioners

Fan Coil Units

Air Handling Units

Refrigeration Systems

Small capacity modular units of direct expansion type similar to domestic refrigerators,

small capacity refrigeration units.

Centralized chilled water plants with chilled water as a secondary coolant for temperature

range over 5°C typically.

Brine plants, which use brines as lower temperature, secondary coolant, for typically sub

zero temperature applications.

The plant capacities upto 50 TR are usually considered as small capacity, 50 – 250 TR as

medium capacity and over 250 TR as large capacity units.

A large industry or High Rise Tower Buildings may have a bank of such units with common chilled water pumps, condenser water pumps, cooling towers, as an off site utility.

The same industry may also have two or three levels of refrigeration & air conditioning such as:

 Comfort air conditioning (20° – 25° C)

 Chilled water system (8° – 10° C)

 Brine system (Sub-zero Applications)

Two principle types of refrigeration plants found in industrial uses are: 

Vapour Compression Refrigeration

Vapour Absorption Refrigeration

Vapour Compression System uses mechanical energy as the driving force for refrigeration, while Vapour Absorption uses thermal energy as the driving force for refrigeration.