Simulation of solar cooling system

for a residential building in South

Africa
Presented by Doudou N. Luta

Outline

Introduction

Case of study

Simulation description

Simulation results

Economic analysis

Conclusion

References

Introduction

What is solar cooling system?

Why solar cooling system?
What is absorption cooling system
Objective of the paper

Introduction
What is solar cooling system?
Solar cooling systems refer to the use of solar energy to
power a cooling system.
Why solar cooling system?

HVAC equipment are one of the major consumers of

electricity which result to an increasing cost of electricity
bill
Conventional HVAC lead to environmental concerns due to
the use of some refrigerants such as CFC
(ChloroFluoroCarbon) and HCFC
(HydroChloroFluoroCarbon)
Need of alternative clean energy sources to drive cooling
units

Introduction (suite)
What is an absorption cooling system?

An heat driven heat pump

Objective of the paper

Analyses the performance of an absorption cooling

system driven by solar energy for a residential
building located in south Africa

Case of study

Description of the case of study

Simulation of Cape town weather data for
October 2013

Case of study

Description of the case of study

We have considered an unknown residential building

located in cape town with a cooling load 15kW

The simulation is based on the month of October

2013

The simulation tool used is Insel Software

Case of study (suite)

Simulation of Cape Town weather data

Figure1 Solar Radiation simulation scheme

Daily radiation in W/m2

Case of study (suite)

Peak daily radiation

687 W/m2 of October 2013

Days of October
Figure 2 Daily global radiation of Cape Town versus hours in October 2013
respectively

Simulation description

Figure 3 Solar absorption air conditioning system simulation scheme

Evaporator refrigeration capacity in

kW

Evaporator outlet temperature in C

Simulation results

Collectors outlet temperature in C

Figure 4 Refrigerating capacity of the

evaporator as function of the collectors
outlet temperature

Collectors outlet temperature in C

Figure 5 Evaporator temperature as

function of the collectors outlet temperature

Economic analysis

The costs of solar absorption cooling systems are still very high compared
to conventional cooling systems. However, solar absorption cooling
systems present the advantage of saving energy and money in term of
payback.

A 15 kW solar absorption cooling system with 0.7 Coefficient of

Performance will normally run at 15 kW x 0.7 = 10.5 kW

Assuming that this cooling system is operating 10 hours per day, the
energy save for 10 hours would be 10.5 kW x 10 = 105 kWh. Under the
current Cape Town electricity tariff rate, this cooling system would be
charged:

105 kWh x 173.28 c/kWh [8] = R18.1944 per day

This means that R18.1944 is save every day, R545.832 every month and
R6549.984 every year.

The average lifetime of the major solar cooling system components are
generally approximated to 20 years [9]. Over this lifetime, the amount of
money save would be R130999.68

Conclusion

Apart from the fact that the price of collectors and absorption cooling
system components are still very high compared to conventional
cooling systems, solar absorption cooling systems represents a
good alternative cooling option.

Due the weather variation, in order the meet the cooling load
requirement, the system must include an additional backup energy
source. For a residential building, adding a backup source of energy
increases the cost of installation and the overall size of the system
compared to conventional cooling units. However, when comparing
both systems in term of the long term running cost, solar absorption
cooling systems present the advantage of saving money and energy.

Reference
[1]

D. M. Tagare, Electric Power Generation: The Changing Dimension, New Jersey: John Wiley &
Sons, 2011.

[2]

V. Mittal, K. Kasana and N. Thakur, The study of solar absorption air-conditioning systems,
Journal of Energy in Southern Africa, vol. 16, no. 4, pp. 59-66, 2005.

[3]

Z. Sayadi, S. El May, M. Bourouis and A. Bellagi, Technical and economic analysis of a solar
assisted air conditioning systems, IEEE Conference, pp. 331-338, 2010.

[4]

Y. Fan, L. Luo and B. Souyri, Review of solar sorption refrigeration technologies: Development
and applications, Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews 11, p. 17581775, 2007.

[5]

ASHRAE, Handbook of HVAC Systems and Equipements, ASHRAE, 2008.

[6]

C. A. Balaras, G. Grossman, H.-M. Henning, C. A. Infante Ferreira, E. Podesser, L. Wang and E.

Wiemken, Solar air conditioning in European overview, Renewable and Sustainable Energy
Reviews 11, pp. 299-314, 2007.
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[7]

[8]

C. o. C. Town, www.capetown.gov.za, 16 March 2014. [Online]. Available:

https://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Pages/default.aspx. [Accessed 16 March 2014].

[9]

L. C. Haw, K. Sopian and Y. Sulaiman, An Overview of Solar Assisted Air-Conditioning System An

Overview of Solar Assisted Air-Conditioning System, in International Conference of Energy and
Environnement, 2009.

Thanks You