Experimental studies on a solar powered air conditioning system with partitioned hot water storage tank

This paper reports on the performance of a solar powered absorption air conditioning system with a partitioned hot water storage tank. The system employs a flat-plate collector array with a surface area of 38 m(2) to drive a LiBr-H2O absorption chiller of 4.7 kW cooling capacity. The system is provided with a storage tank (2.75 m(3)) which is partitioned into two parts. The upper part has a volume of about one-fourth of the entire tank. The performance of this modified system is presented and compared with the conventional system design (whole-tank mode). The study reveals that the solar cooling effect can be realized nearly 2 h earlier for the system operating in partitioned mode. In this system a total solar cooling COPsystem of about 0.07, which is about 15% higher than with traditional whole-tank mode, is attained. Experimental results also show that during cloudy days, the system could not provide a cooling effect, when operated conventionally, however in the partitioned mode-driven system the chiller could be energized, using solar energy as the only heat source. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.