In-field monitoring and numerical parametric analysis of a small size adsorption solar cooling plant in Italy

Abstract

Solar cooling of small buildings represents a very interesting potential market, still underdeveloped and characterized by a wide range of uncertainties, both on the technological and the economical side. Actually, there are a few low size ready-to-market adsorption/absorption chillers and their costs are significantly higher than technically mature compression systems. The combination of solar thermal systems with solar assisted chillers needs a thorough design stage to be correctly optimized and this may turn out unaffordable for a low size project. A monitoring campaign has been carried on a new building (PUEEL – Prototipo Uffici ad Elevata Efficienza in Legno, High Efficiency Wooden Office Prototype) realized at the facilities of IPLA1 in Turin, Italy. The building has a wooden highly insulated envelope, controlled mechanical ventilation with thermodynamic heat recovery, radiant heating/cooling. A solar thermal collector field is integrated in the building roof (Fig.1), used both for the building heating and cooling demand, thanks to a 9kW adsorption chiller. Dynamic simulations of the system, using software Polysun © for solar cooling plant and EnergyPlus © for building demand assessment, have also been carried on and compared with in-field measurements. The validated model has been used for a parametric evaluation of the effects of the installation of different components and control strategies.