TEWI Evaluation of the Enhanced R134a Mobile Air Conditioning System

To consider the global warming impact of the mobile air conditioning (MAC) system comprehensively, the concept of total equivalent warming impact (TEWI) was proposed these years. In this study, the enhanced R134a MAC system with micro-channel evaporator and sub-cooled parallel flow condenser, was tested on psychrometric calorimeter test bench and compared to the baseline system in different working conditions. The TEWI analysis method was used to evaluate both systems’ environmental effect potential, which was done in three typical cities in China. It was found that the enhanced system could achieve larger COP and lower TEWI. The TEWI of the enhanced system could reduce 10.3% compared to the baseline system at most. That means a car with enhanced MAC system could reduce the emission of CO2 for 313.2kg during its life span.