Experimental Performance and Techno-Economic Analysis of an Air Conditioning System with an Ice Storage System

High peak-hour energy consumption from air conditioning in commercial buildings creates significant operational costs and grid instability. This study experimentally investigates the thermo-economic performance of a vapor compression refrigeration system (VCR) ice storage system to address this challenge through load shifting. The methodology involved operating a custom test rig, featuring an insulated test chamber and an ice tank with a novel spiral evaporator, under an improved 8 h night charging and 9 h day discharge strategy. Results show the system consumed 5.44 kWh of electricity to store 7.70 kWh of thermal energy, achieving a charging Coefficient of Performance (COP) of 1.42. A total of 5.195 kWh of cooling was delivered with a discharge efficiency of 67.5%. The experimental cost analysis confirmed an approximate 20% operating cost advantage over conventional direct cooling. A simple payback assessment indicates strong sensitivity to tariff structures and annual operating days. This study concludes that the optimized Ice Storage System (ISS) is a technically viable and economically advantageous solution for managing peak cooling loads, providing a validated reference model and dataset for future work.