Energy and Exergy Analysis of a Air-Conditioning System with the solar collector

Abstract

This paper presents a new system of air-conditioning to decrease the power consumption that uses the heat energy from the solar collector to support and enhance the heating of refrigerant, thus decreasing the workload of the compressor. It focuses on the new system of the air conditioner which is a solar collector, added after the compressor in the air conditioner cycle. The collector used for the experimentations is discussed, vacuum tube solar collector and flat plate solar collector is selected and the refrigerant used is R32. The results indicate that solar collector usage improves system COP by 30 %. Furthermore, overall exergy efficiency values of the system increase by using the solar collector and showing that the proposed design can reduce the power consumption by the air conditioner by about 24% lower than conventional air conditioner.