Samsung brings innovation to air-conditioning market

Samsung, air conditioning, chiller
Samsung’s new circular cassette. It is shown here with a square surround, but a circular trim is also available.

Samsung Electronics is making a major impact on the European air-conditioning market this year with products that represent major innovation and significant advances on previous products. They were launched at Mostra Convegno Expocomfort at Milan in March before embarking on an extensive road show innovation tour throughout Europe.

The tour started in The Netherlands and took in 43 cities in 18 countries — including four stops in the UK.

Of the four new products, the one that will attract most attention, simply because it is an indoor unit rather than an outdoor unit, is the 360 circular cassette which provides multi-way control of airflow with no dead zones, despite having no louvres.

That is far from suggesting, however, that the other products lack innovation and significant technical interest.

The DVM S Evolution, for example, is described as the largest-capacity single VRF outdoor unit on the market. It has a capacity of 84 kW in a footprint of 0.99 m2 compared to 1.66 m2 for conventional DVM S units.

Also featured at Mostra Convegno Expocomfort and on Samsung’s innovation tour was the DVM S Eco mini VRF unit, described as the largest-capacity mini-VRF on the market. It can deliver 40 kW of cooling from a single unit with a footprint of just 940 by 460 mm.

Utilising VRF technology to deliver chilled water — the DVM chiller. 

Finally, the DVM chiller utilises VRF technology to deliver chilled water, the key being a plate heat exchanger as the interface between the refrigerant (R410A) and the water circuit.

The 360 circular cassette is described by Charles Park, vice president of A/C product sales and marketing at Samsung Electronics as a ‘transformation of the conventional 4-way cassette into our innovative circular design to offer unbeatable performance with a premium stylish appearance’.

There are no louvre blades, with their associated 25% loss of air and temperature variation of 2.3 K in the conditioned space. With the 360 diffuser the ∆T is just 0.6 K over a 9.3 m diameter area.

Internally, the 360 cassette has a large fan that pushes the air out through a circular heat exchanger. Three small fans around the outside of that heat exchanger create a negative pressure to control the vertical angle of discharge — maximising the coanda effect and minimising cold draughts. These fans consume just 1 W each.

The increased capacity of the DVM S Evolution VRF outdoor unit is the result of a number of technical enhancements and innovations. The result is a 15% increase in capacity on the 2015 model and 30% on the 2013 unit. An immediate benefit is that 84 kW of cooling can be delivered from a footprint 40% smaller than was possible with earlier models.

There are three innovative technical features.

• Inverter scroll compressor with a capacity of 80 cm3 compared to 70 cm3 and representing an increase in displacement of 14.3%.

• The wrap-around heat exchanger of a hybrid design. The upper part of the heat exchanger is wide slits, and the lower part has corrugated fins. This design maximises the airflow through the coil.

• Optimised condenser-path design (tripod plus diagonal line hair pin).

Smaller VRF combined with high efficiency — the DVM S Eco.

A single unit has a footprint of 0.99 m2 and weighs 360 kg.

Finally, an integral leak-detection system automatically begins a pump-down process to collect the refrigerant and close all valve in the unit.

At the smaller end of the VRF market is the side-discharge DVM S Eco with a cooling capacity of 40 kW. EER in cooling is 3.78 and COP in heating mode is 4.55.

Features include an inverter scroll compressor and corrugated fins to improve heating performance by 20%. A newly designed propeller fan increases air flow by 10% compared to conventional fans.

Installation capabilities have also been enhanced — with an extended piping length of up to 160 m and an installation height of up to 50 m.

Samsung’s fourth innovation is the DVM chiller, which is described as combining the strengths of an air-cooled chiller and VRF technology. It is a new market for Samsung, and the concept is a positive response to EU regulations of F gases.

These chillers are claimed to achieve energy savings of 36 to 50% compared to conventional chillers. For example, two 42 kW units in modular configuration, just as conventional VRF units can be connected in modular configuration, can achieve an ESEER of 5.7.

DVM chiller units are available with cooling capacities of 42, 56 and 65 kW, and up to 16 units can be combined as a single module.

Individual units weigh less than 500 kg, so handling and transport is quite simple. They can be moved, for example, in a cargo elevator.

Described as the largest-capacity VRF unit on the market, with 84 kW of cooling — the DVM S Evolution.

As to control, DVM chillers provide the same integrated control system as conventional VRF.

Speaking at the Mostra Convegno Expocomfort launch, B. K. Yoon, president and CEO of consumer electronics business, Samsung Electronics, said, ‘With the introduction of these new technologies to the AC market, we are confident that the needs of our European customers and market demands have been met, as well as the new EU regulations. At Samsung we are committed to continuously evolving our technologies to offer the best products and user experience possible to our customers.’

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