Riverside Lab Facilities
Refrigerant Component / System Evaluation Test Bed
The Refrigerant Component/System Evaluation Test Bed is a fully instrumented refrigeration loop. This test bed can be modified at any point to test different refrigerants, lubricants, compressors, evaporators, thermal expansion valves, condensers or full systems in a variety of configurations.
Psychrometric Rooms Facility
The Psychrometric Test Facility provides a controlled environment for testing air conditioning and heat pump systems. This facility is fully instrumented and computerized to monitor and record dry bulb, wet bulb and dew point temperatures from +10 to +120º F, and to measure relative humidity from 5% to 95%. The facility can accommodate equipment up to 10-tons in capacity, and can measure air flow rates from 150 to 5,000 CFM. This test facility meets ASHRAE Standards 116 and ARI 210/240.
Photovoltaic Testing Facility
The Photovoltaic (PV) Testing Facility is a secured, outdoor facility for the performance testing of PV devices in hot and humid climates. The facility is instrumented with a weather station, and tilt and global radiation instruments, and power, voltage and current measurement equipment.
Heat Exchanger Performance Facility
The heat exchanger facility is fully equipped to test flow, heat transfer and pressure drop across heat exchangers and the associated heat transfer correlations.
Airflow Chambers
REEL has 6 airflow chambers that can be used to test fans up to 8 feet in diameter with capacities from 1 to 50,000 cubic feet per minute. The test chambers are built to ANSI/AMCA Standard 210 as well as the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) Standard 51, HVI 915.
Duct Performance and Evaluation Facility
REEL has facilities to test the performance of a duct with respect to pressure drop, leakage rate, and duct deflection. In addition REEL is capable of testing duct liner attenuation.
Semi-Reverberant Sound Room Facility
The Semi-Reverberant Sound Room Facility is an acoustically isolated room that is designed to reflect sound waves throughout the room. The semi-reverberant sound room is often used to test the sound level of small sound sources, such as residential fans for HVI and Energy Star.
Miscellaneous HVAC Evaluation Facilities
REEL has several other HVAC evaluation facilities, these include a vent cap evaluation facility, an energy recovery ventilator recovery facility, pressure drop facility, flow calibration facility, chiller evaluation facility, and building heat transfer evaluation facility.
