An empirical model for a split air-conditioning system with an air-cooled condensing unit and an indoor evaporator unit is presented. The model is intended for hourly building energy simulations. Major inputs to the model are the cooling capacity, coefficient of performance, and sensible heat ratio at rating conditions. Performance degradation at part-load conditions is accounted for. The model is implemented in the ESP-r/H3K simulation engine. Model implementation in ESP-r/H3K is validated through comparison to spreadsheet calculations. In addition, model predictions from ESP-r/H3K are compared to results from other simulation programs and analytical solutions contained in an International Energy Agency set of test cases (HVAC BESTEST). The agreement between the results from the simulation model in ESP-r/H3K and those from the HVAC BESTEST is very good. Results also show the importance of software testing and validation in increasing the confidence in simulation results.

Units: SI