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Performance of thermostatic and electronic valves controlling the compressor capacity
Author(s) -
Aprea C.,
Mastrullo R.,
Renno C.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
international journal of energy research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.808
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1099-114X
pISSN - 0363-907X
DOI - 10.1002/er.1222
Subject(s) - thermostat , thermal expansion valve , gas compressor , refrigeration , inverter , electric energy consumption , cooling capacity , automotive engineering , energy consumption , vapor compression refrigeration , valve actuator , fuzzy logic , engineering , control theory (sociology) , mechanical engineering , computer science , electrical engineering , control (management) , refrigerant , thermodynamics , physics , electric energy , ball valve , voltage , power (physics) , artificial intelligence
Abstract The performance of the energy consumption of an electronic valve and a classical thermostatic valve has been compared when these expansion valves are adopted in a vapour compression plant subjected to a cold store. The main aim is to verify experimentally which type of expansion valve would be preferable from energy point of view when a classical thermostat or a fuzzy logic algorithm are used as the control system for the refrigeration capacity. The fuzzy logic‐based control is able to modulate continuously the compressor speed through an inverter. The results show that with a fuzzy algorithm, the thermostatic expansion valve allows an energy saving of about 8% in comparison with the electronic valve. When on–off control is used, the electric energy consumption obtained both with the electronic valve and with the thermostatic valve is comparable. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.