Demonstration study of solar absorption cooling system with evacuated tubular solar collectors

Abstract

This paper presents demonstration study results derived through field testing of a part load solar energized cooling system for the library of a cultural center building located in Gwangju, Korea. The area of demanded cooling for building was about 350m2. Solar hot water was delivered by means of a 200m2 array of evacuated tubular solar collector (ETSC) to drive a single-effect (LiBr/H2O) absorption chiller of 35kW nominal cooling capacity. During the demonstration tests, operating conditions of the solar cooling system are established through modifications of the various control parameters. The results of the experimental study indicated that the demonstration system's total solar energy gain as daily cooling performance on a sunny day (August 1, 2006) with total daily radiation of 1, 196kWh was 698kWh, the collecting efficiency of 58%. Of the heat gain energy, the solar assisted absorption chiller utilized 385kWh and 202kWh of cooling energy were from the solar chiller with the COP of 0.52.