Abstract
This paper presents the studies conducted on the effect of climate change on the air conditioner in terms of performance and reliability in the tropics. Basically, three aspects of impact were focused, which were cooling and heating load, electricity consumption and outdoor design conditions for the air conditioning system. The related papers were categorized into three groups and analysis of theoretical and experimental studies was made. A lot of researches had been carried out on the climate change impacts towards the air conditioner in the tropics since last few decades, but most of the researches were focused on existing cooling or heating demands, region overall electricity consumption and existing outdoor design conditions for the air conditioning system instead of the possible impacts on the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system in the future. Based on literature review, further substantial researches are needed in order to have a clearer picture on the climate variation effect towards the air conditioning system so that a complete guideline can be prepared for the future air conditioning system design in the tropics by taking consideration of possible climate change. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.