Solar sorption cooling systems for residential applications: Options and guidelines

Solar powered sorption cooling systems have been researched and demonstrated in recent years, which contain adsorption cooling, absorption cooling and desiccant cooling. The various typical systems with small scale for potential residential applications are discussed and analyzed, in which the working principals, system suitability for solar cooling, performance, maintenance and economic viability have been discussed in this paper. With such analyses and the available real operation systems, the detailed options and guidelines of solar cooling for residential applications are shown. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.