Proceedings: The Second International Conference on Building Energy and Environment 2012

Topic 7. Sustainable and advanced built environments

Hybrid Solar Air-Conditioner Modelling and Optimal Usage for Energy

Saving and Comfort Enhancement
Vahid Vakiloroaya1,*, Richard Dibbs1, Q. P. Ha1, and Bijan Samali2
1
School of Electrical, Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems, University of Technology,
Sydney, Australia
2
Center for Built Infrastructure Research, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering,
University of Technology, Sydney, Australia
*
Corresponding email: Vakiloroaya@engineer.com

Keywords: Hybrid Solar Air-Conditioner, Performance Prediction, Energy Saving, Comfort

SUMMARY

This paper addresses the problem of reducing energy consumption in buildings by using a
new hybrid solar-assisted air conditioning (HSAC) system taking into account indoor air
quality. Based on the refined models of system components, the influence of integrated
vacuum solar collector and solar storage tank on the system performance is discussed in terms
of energy savings and human comfort. For this purpose, the system is retrofitted with several
sensors and datalogger devices to record the system performance data. The mathematical
models and experimentally-collected data are coded into a transient simulation tool. The
integrated simulation tool is validated through testing conditions during a summer period.
Results are provided to show the capability of significantly reducing electricity consumption
while ensuring comfort enhancement by using the proposed system.

INTRODUCTION

For energy efficiency improvement and greenhouse gas emission reduction, new installations
and major retrofits in occupied buildings are nowadays becoming an important issue. The
overall attainable reduction in energy consumption and enhancement of human comfort in the
buildings are dependent on performance of heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC)
systems. With consolidation of the demand for human comfort, HVAC systems have become
an unavoidable asset, accounting for almost 50% energy consumed in building and around 10-
20% of total energy consumption in developed countries (Perez-Lombard et al. 2008).
Therefore, it is interesting to investigate the problem of how to combine air conditioning
systems with renewable energy sources in order to diminish their energy consumption and
CO2 emission while maintaining comfort conditions inside the building.

In order to achieve energy efficiency in buildings, much effort has focused on the energy
consumption in HVACs, for which summer air-conditioning for residential usage remains one
of the main factors causing a growing demand for the peak electricity load. Several studies
have also highlighted the potential impact of different renewable energy sources to reduce the
energy usage of air conditioning systems. Among all these options, solar energy as an eco-
friendly and sustainable energy resource on earth has been used to contribute to the HVAC
systems over the last few years. A long-term performance of a direct expansion (DX) solar-
assisted heat pump for domestic use was reported in Wang and Kuang 2006, which could

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offer heating in the winter, cooling in the summer and supplying hot water for the whole year.
The operation of a solar-powered adsorption air conditioning system was presented (Zhai et
al. 2008) and its performance was analyzed under a typical weather condition. Their results
showed that compared with ambient temperature, the solar radiant intensity had a more
distinct influence on the performance of solar-powered air conditioning system, which can be
expected. A numerical model of a solar-assisted HVAC system was used in (Vorobieff et al.
2010) to predict performance and to optimize its control parameters with the total cooling
energy requirement being reduced up to 43%. More recently, a solar-assisted desiccant and
evaporative cooling system for building air conditioning has been studied in (Finocchiaro et
al. 2012), where an air-to-air heat exchanger is used to maximize the exploitation of the
evaporative cooling potential. Sequential quadratic programming is proposed in (Vakiloroaya
et al. 2012) for generating optimal set-point for a residential solar-assisted air conditioning
system to target energy savings and performance enhancement. However, none of the works
attempted to study the direct expansion air-conditioner case where the renewable resource
energy equipment is installed after the compressor. Therefore, it will be interesting to
understand the influence of the additional solar vacuum collector with its integrated water
storage tank on the performance of the system.

This paper presents an experimental study to model and validate the inherent operational
characteristics of a direct expansion air-conditioner when combining with a vacuum solar
collector. The HSAC in investigation is extensively equipped with a number of sensors and
instrumentation devices for data logging and monitoring. Both inputs and outputs of the
existing plant are measured from the field monitoring in one typical week in the summer.
Here, mathematical models of system components are derived from the system’s heat transfer
and thermodynamics. Data recorded experimentally are used for validation. Performance
prediction is then obtained over a very wide range of operating conditions. Because of
nonlinearity, complexity and building-dependency of the system, mathematical models and
experimental data are implemented on a transient simulation tool, TRNSYS 16 (2006), to
predict performance of the system. We then study the temporal profiles of the main
parameters of interest such as refrigerant temperature leaving the evaporator, condenser,
compressor, solar storage tank and capillary tube as well as solar storage tank water
temperature. Advantages are shown on the significant reduction of electricity consumed while
satisfying the comfort conditions.

SYSTEM MODELLING

A single stage vapour compression solar air-conditioner consists of six major components,
namely a compressor, a condenser, a capillary tube, an evaporator, a solar vacuum collector
and a solar storage tank. Figure 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a hybrid solar-assisted
air conditioning system. The cycle starts with a mixture of liquid and vapour refrigerant
entering the evaporator (point 1). The heat from warm air is absorbed by an evaporator DX
coil. During this process, the state of the refrigerant is changed from a liquid to a gas and
becomes superheated at the evaporator exit. Superheat is required to prevent slugs of liquid
refrigerant from reaching the compressor and causing any serious damage. Heat transfer in the
superheated zone of the evaporator can be calculated from the followings equations:

C (Tle  Te )  N sh0.22 
rsh
Cmin (Ttpae  Te )
 1  exp   
exp( CN sh0.78 )  1  , (1)
 C 

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So
la
r
R
ad
ia
tio
n
Miniature Internal

V
Solarimeter

ac
Temperature Datalogger

uu
(KT-20L) (CR100-A)

m
So
la
r
C
ol
le
ct
or
(5) (4)

Sight Glass air-Cooled Condenser

(3)

Semiconductor Temperature
KT-20L Rotary Compressor Sensor (LM335A) negative temperature
Filter
Drier coefficient (NTC)
thermistor

M
Capillary DX Evaporator
(2) Power Clamp
Tube
Multimeter

4 Channels data logger

(1) KIMO Type (KH-250-AO)
Data Sheet Data Sheet

Solenoid Valve

Conditioned
Space PC

Fig. 1. Schematic block diagram of a hybrid solar-assisted air conditioner

where Crsh is the refrigerant capacitance rate for the evaporator superheat section, Tle is the
refrigerant temperature leaving the evaporator, Te is the evaporative temperature, Cmin is the
minimum heat capacity rate of the evaporator, Ttpae is the air temperature leaving the two
phase sections of the evaporator, C is the capacity rate ratio, and Nsh is the transfer unit
number for the superheat section of the evaporator.

The superheat vapour then enters the compressor, at point 2, and there an increasing pressure
will in turn increase the temperature. A vacuum solar panel installed after the compressor,
uses the sun radiations as a heat source to heat up the water. An insulated water storage tank
is connected to the vacuum solar collector to maintain the water temperature. The refrigerant
from the compressor goes through the copper coil inside the tank and undertake a heat
exchange, at point 3. Therefore, the vacuum solar collector reheats the refrigerant to reach the
necessary superheat temperature as well as its pressure in order to reduce the required
electrical energy to run the compressor. In fact, the vacuum solar collector reduces both the
temperature and pressure of the compression required to achieve the cooling process and thus
reduce the compressor power usage and increase the efficiency of the condenser coil via
utilizing more of its effective cooling face. The conventional air-conditioner can achieve only
a portion of the gas condensed into a liquid state so that the refrigerant enters the metering
device as a saturated vapour while a solar hybrid system allows transforming more of a liquid
phase in the metering device. An energy balance for the water storage tank gives:
dTs
(  sVs c ps )  (  s s c ps ) (Tco  Tci )  ( AU ) HX (Tr T s)  ( AU ) m (Ta  Ts ), (2)
dt
where cps is the specific heat of water, Vs is the tank water volume, ρs is the water density, υs is
the water volumetric flow rate, Ts is the water temperature, Tco and Tci are respectively the
temperature of water leaving and entering the solar collector, (AU)HX and (AU)m are
respectively the coiled pipe and storage tank loss coefficients, Tr is the refrigerant average
temperature inside the coiled pipe, and Ta is the ambient dry-bulb temperature. The energy
balance principle for the coiled pipe inside the storage tank gives:

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 Proceedings: The Second International Conference on Building Energy and Environment 2012

 ( AU ) HX 
Tro  Ts  (Ts  Tri ) exp   , (3)
 (  c ) 
 r r pr 

where Tro and Tri are respectively the temperature of refrigerant leaving and entering the
coiled pipe, cpr is the specific heat of the refrigerant, ρr is the refrigerant density and υr is the
refrigerant volumetric flow rate. After the solar collector, the high-pressure superheated gas
travels to the condenser for heat rejection to the ambient air, at point 4. A further reduction in
the refrigerant temperature takes place in the condenser and causes it to de-superheat and thus
the refrigerant liquid is sub-cooled as it enters the expansion valve. Sub-cooling prevents a
flash gas formation before the expansion valve and ensures that the designed evaporator
performance range is achieved. The heat transfer for the sub-cooled region in the condenser is
evaluated from the following equations:
 N 0.22 
Crsc (Tle  Tc )
Cmin (T  Tc )
 
 1  exp  sc exp( CN sc0.78 )  1  , (4)
tpac
 C 

where Crsc is the refrigerant capacitance rate for the condenser sub-cool section, Tc is the
condensing temperature, Ttpac is the air temperature leaving the two-phase section of the
condenser, and Nsc is the transfer unit number for the sub-cool section of the condenser. The
high pressure sub-cooled refrigerant flows through the expansion valve, at point 5, which
serves to reduce its pressure as well as to control the flow rate into the evaporator.

EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP AND VALIDATION

Set-up
The experimental work has been carried out using an experimental hybrid solar DX air-
conditioner together with its data monitoring devices, as shown respectively in Fig. 2(a) and
2(b). The experimental set-up is mainly composed of two parts, i.e., an air-conditioned room
served by the DX evaporator unit and the condensing unit, which is combined with a solar
vacuum collector. The nominal output cooling capacity of the air-conditioner is 6 kW. The
plant has one scroll hermetic compressor and uses refrigerant R410A as a working fluid. The
amount of charged refrigerant into the system is 1.8 kg. The design air flow rate of the
evaporator fan is 850 m3/h. The condenser in the plant is an air-cooled shell and of a coated
fin tube type. The design air flow rate of the condenser axial fan is 2500 m3/h and its rated
power input is 50 W. The collector uses two concentric glass tubes and the space in between
the tubes is evacuated, creating a vacuum jacket. The solar collector is made of 11 evacuated
tubes with the length and diameter respectively of 620 mm and 47 mm. The collector is
integrated at a tilted angle of 5° and oriented towards North (for Southern Hemisphere). The
solar collector is equipped with a 35-litre horizontal cylinder as a storage tank. The existing
HSAC system has been fully-instrumented so that a great deal of test under different running
conditions was conducted. High precision sensors/transducers were used for measuring all
operating variables. The following parameters were measured: meteorological parameters
(global solar radiation, ambient temperature and ambient relative humidity), solar storage tank
water temperature, indoor temperature and relative humidity, temperature of refrigerant
before and after solar storage tank and after condenser and evaporator and total power
consumption of the plant. The global radiation is measured by means of a solarimeter of the
type CR100-A mounted on a surface parallel to the plane of the collector. The solarimeter is
integrated to a computer-based datalogger KT250. The outdoor temperature and relative
humidity are measured by using a combined sensor-datalogger device type with a calibrated
accuracy of ±0.4°C and ±2% for relative humidity.

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Fig. 2: (a) Experimental hybrid solar-

(b) Data monitoring devices.
assisted air conditioner,

The measuring range for temperature sensor is between -20°C and 70°C and for humidity is
between 5% and 95%. The sensor is integrated with computer-based datalogger KH250-AO.
A vertical array of semiconductor temperature sensor, mounted in a plastic tube with a current
limiting resistor and accuracy ±2°C, is located inside the solar storage tank to measure the
average temperature of the water inside the tank. The sensor is connected to the KH-250 type
datalogger. The refrigerant temperature sensors are of a resistance transducer type with a
calibrated accuracy of ±0.5°C for a temperature range from -40°C to +85°C. The outputs from
the sensors are recorded by means of a computer-based datalogger KT20L. In order to reduce
the thermal contact resistance between sensors and tube surface, a thermal grease tape was
used to wrap the tube to push the sensors against the tube surface and also prevent any
convection effect of the ambient air on the temperature readings. Powers of components are
measured by a digital ac/dc power clamp multi-meter of ±3.5% precision. The field tests were
run continuously to monitor the system performance at various weather conditions. The field
tests were carried out during the whole 24 hours per day for one typical week and all
measured data were monitored within an interval of 10 minutes. All measurements then were
computerized so that all the measured data can be recorded for subsequent analysis.

Model validation
The realized system data are used to validate the models. All program codes were written in a
TRNSYS program. For this purpose, all the mathematical models and experimental data are
implemented in TRNSYS, based on a modular approach coded in a FORTRAN subroutine.
The plant model includes a subroutine to evaluate the thermodynamic properties of the
refrigerant R410a. The simulation schematic diagram is shown in Figure 1, where the icon
“building” represents the building information file, compliant with the requirement of
ANSI/ASHRAE standard 140 (2007). The coefficient of multiple determination R2 is used to
compare the predicted and actual values for model validation and can be evaluated by:
n
 (y pre,m  ymea,m )
2

R2  1  m 1
n
, (5)
 (M mea,m )
2

m 1

where ypre,m is the predicted variable, ymea,m is the measured variable and Mmea,m is the deviation
of the observations from their mean. Figures 3 and 4 compare the predicted the measured
refrigerant temperatures leaving the evaporator and leaving the solar storage tank. It can be
seen that the predicted profiles match well with the experimental results with a difference of

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no greater than 10%. However, the predicted values were always found to be higher than the
measured values.

Fig. 3. Measured and predicted refrigerant Fig. 4. Measured and predicted refrigerant
temperature leaving the evaporator temperature leaving the condenser

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

To predict the performance of the system throughout the summer, the cooling load is
calculated prior to the simulation performed by using TRNSYS. The solar storage water tank
which receives energy from the solar collectors is thermally well-insulated, allowing the
system to continue operating at a good efficiency even after three days of cool, cloudy
weather. In addition, the cooler weather lowers the heat load, thereby increasing the
temperature differential at the condenser and promoting more efficient heat transfer. On a
sunny day, water temperature can reach from 75°C to 93°C, depending on solar radiation
intensity and ambient air dry-bulb temperature, as shown in Fig. 5. A heavily overcast day, on
the other hand, might produce water temperature of from 71°C to 85°C.

In a traditional DX air conditioning system, the compressor is sized to produce the required
refrigerant pressure at the expansion valve, as well as the temperature differential at the
condenser for effective heat rejection. This results in the possibility of compressor pressures
to be larger than required. In the HSAC unit under consideration, the compressor is sized
solely on the pressure requirement, with an additional heat input to account for the condenser
heat rejection provided by solar collectors for most of the time. This allows for the use of a
smaller compressor, consequently for saving of around 37% of electrical energy as compared
to a conventional system of equivalent cooling capacity. However, the refrigerant temperature
after the smaller compressor is 4 to 6 degrees less than what is required for the condenser heat
rejection to be effective; this shortfall being made up by additional heat input from solar
collectors. The temperature of the refrigerant leaving both the evaporator and the condenser is
influenced by the heat input from the solar collectors, as shown in Fig. 6. The temperature of
the refrigerant leaving the condenser increases with an increase in the refrigerant temperature
after the solar storage tank. The reason is that a constant speed condenser fan is limited to
rejecting a designed amount of heat from the refrigerant. The fan speed for heat rejection is
selected based upon the heat absorbed by the refrigerant in both the evaporator and the
compressor. However, in the HSAC system, the condenser heat rejection is not only
dependent on the refrigerant temperature leaving the compressor but also upon the solar
radiation intensity. As a result, an increase in the solar radiation can reduce the overall

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compressor power consumption while causing a smaller sub-cool temperature of refrigerant

leaving the condenser. Therefore a bigger condenser is required to compensate for the
efficiency drop. Furthermore, the refrigerant temperature leaving the evaporator increases as a
result of an increase in solar radiation and thus the compressor should work at a lower
pressure and in turn lessen effectively its power usage.

Fig. 5. Temperature profile of water and refrigerant for storage tank

Fig. 6. Refrigerant temperature leaving evaporator and condenser versus refrigerant

temperature leaving storage tank

Comfort condition
Thermal comfort is all about human satisfaction with a thermal environment. The design and
calculation of air conditioning systems to control the given thermal environment to achieve
standard air quality inside a building should comply with the ASHRAE standard 55 (2010).
To predict the thermal comfort condition, an index called the predicted mean vote (PMV),
which indicates mean the thermal sensation vote on a standard scale for a large group of
people, is used in this paper. The PMV is defined by six thermal variables for an indoor
environment subject to human comfort, namely air temperature, air humidity, air velocity,
mean radiant temperature, clothing insulation and human activity. The PMV index predicts
the mean value of the votes on the seven point thermal sensation scale, namely +3: hot, +2:
warm, +1: slightly warm, 0: neutral, -1: slightly cool, -2: cool, -3: cold. According to ISO
7730 standard (2005) the values of PMV between -1 and 1 are in the range that 75% people
are satisfied while between -0.5 and 0.5 is the satisfactory range of 90% people. It is of
interest to see how the resulting PMV appears for the sensor-rich HSAC system in this paper.
The PMV fluctuates from 0.16 to 1.04 for the hottest day and is changed between -0.23 and
0.87 for the cloudy day during the testing week. Also according to the results, 81% of the

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votes are for PMV < 0.6 and 100% of the votes for PMV < 1.05 which means this system can
achieve significant energy savings while maintaining PMV values in a standard range.

CONCLUSION

In this paper we have investigated the performance of a fully-developed, solar-assisted, split-

system air-conditioner of 6 kW cooling capacity. Mathematical models of the system
components were developed and, together with experimental data collected continually over a
summer period, implemented in a transient simulation software tool. Performance predictions
were compared with actual performance measurements under a variety of operating
conditions. The resulting coincidence of the results indicates the validity of our modelling
approach and serves as a convincing evidence for the energy saving claim. Results showed
that by adding heat, in this case from solar collectors, to the refrigerant after the compressor,
the required outlet pressure of the compressor can be lowered, permitting the use of a smaller
compressor to consequently lower the electrical energy consumption. Further work on this
topic will be to optimize the system operation by controlling the temperature of refrigerant
leaving the solar water storage tank, in order to maximize the system coefficient of
performance.

REFERENCES

ASHRAE. 2007. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 140-2007, Standard Method of Test for the
Evaluation of Building Energy Analysis Computer Program. Atlanta: American Society of
Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-Conditioning Engineers, Inc.
ASHRAE. 2010. ANSI/ASHRAE Standard 55-2010, Thermal Environmental Conditions for
Human Occupancy. Atlanta: American Society of Heating, Refrigerating, and Air-
Conditioning Engineers, Inc.
Finocchiaro P., Beccali M., and Nocke B., 2012. Advanced solar assisted desicant and
evaporative cooling system equipped with wet heat exchangers. Solar Energy, 86(1), 608-
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ISO. 2005. ISO Standard 7730-2005, Moderate Thermal Environment, Determination of
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Perez-Lombard L., Ortiz J., and Pout S. 2008. A review on building energy consumption
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Vakiloroaya, V., Dibbs, R., and Ha, Q.P. 2012. Energy saving potential of an optimized
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Zhai X.Q., Wang R.Z., Wu J.Y., Dai Y.J., and Ma Q., 2008. Design and performance of a
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