I am planning to create a testing setup as follows:


Small building with two separate chambers, one for the condenser and one for 1-3 evaporators, and an instrumentation board.
The condenser and evaporators will be expelling their air to the outside and a volumetric flow and humidity measurements will be taken.
The chambers will have a heater supplying air to the chamber with a thermostat in each to ensure that the temp in the chamber is maintained, and also there will be a humidity measurement in the chambers.
Analog pressure gauges at each component's entrance and exit, along with thermocouples on the outside of the refrigerant lines.
Variable speed motor to drive the compressor just outside the small building.

I will be able to determine the btu rating of the entire system by using both the refrigerant, and the temperature and humidity change across the evaporators. I was also thinking of monitoring the btu input of the heater to the evaporator enclosure so that I know if the temperature is constant, this will be another verification of the system performance.

I was planning on the chambers being approximately 16 cu ft or so. Do you think that this will be large enough?

This system will be mostly analog with just steady state readings being measured, but I want it to have the ability to be upgraded to a DAQ type setup in the future.

Thanks in advance for any help, concerns, or comments.