Thermal Issues in Emerging Technologies, ThETA 3, Cairo, Egypt, Dec 19-22nd 2010

TECHNICAL AND ECONOMIC ANALYSIS OF A SOLAR ASSISTED AIR-CONDITIONING SYSTEM Z. Sayadi1, S. El May1, Mahmoud Bourouis2, A. Bellagi1*
1

U. R. Thermique et Thermodynamique des Procdes Industriels, UTThPI Ecole Nationale dIngnieurs de Monastir, ENIM Avenue Ibn El Jazzar, 5019 Monastir, Tunisie 2 Mechanical Engineering Department, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, 43006 Tarragona, Spain * a.Bellagi@enim.rnu.tn
Abstract
fluids (LiBr/water) is based on the following considerations. For a single-effect chiller, as the one proposed here, the driving fluid temperature is close to 100C, a temperature range that evacuated tube collectors can ensure. In addition, it is reported that LiBr/water machines performance are higher than those working with a water/NH3 system [3]. Finally, evaporation temperatures below 0C are unnecessary in the air-conditioning sector, which allows the use of water as refrigerant. This paper analyses the technical and economic feasibility of a solar-powered air-conditioning system by means of mathematical modeling and numerical simulation using the software tools EES (Engineering Equation Solver, Flowchart Engineering) and TRNSYS (Transient Energy System Simulation program). A single effect water-cooled chiller is designed for a typical middle class family house (170 m2) under the climatic conditions of Tunis City. The solar-assisted air-conditioning system comprises the LiBr/H2O absorption machine, an evacuated tube field, a thermal back-up source provided by a gas heater, a hot water storage tank and fan coils for the house airconditioning.

In this paper, we present an analysis aiming at assessing the feasibility and economic performance of a solar-assisted air-conditioning system for a middle class house under the climatic conditions of Tunis City. A single effect water-lithium bromide absorption machine, with a cooling capacity of 10 kW is considered. Various simulations are carried out using the TRNSYS and EES programs. The calculations show that 30m2 of evacuated tube collector area with a thermal storage tank of about 1m3, can cover 87% of the energy needs of a water-cooled machine with a maximum driving heat temperature at 95C. The total annual expenses for the water-cooling are about1608 US $.

1. Introduction
During the last few decades, the increased fossil fuel energy consumption associated with the overloading of the electricity grid for air-conditioning purposes, especially at peak demand periods in hot summer increased dramatically in several countries, particularly in hot climate regions. In 1996, about 11000GWh primary energy were consumed in Europe alone by small air-conditioners up to a cooling capacity of 12 kW [1]. This value is expected to increase by a factor of 4 by 2020. Energy conservation is an approach to reduce the disadvantages of the constantly growing energy demand of air-conditioning in both an economic and environmental sense. Single effect absorption chillers cooled by either air or water are best adapted for solar-assisted airconditioning systems with common solar collectors (flat plate collectors and evacuated tube collectors), as they require a rather low temperature heat input and can be relatively performent with a COP ranging between 0.6 and 0.8 [2]. The appropriate working fluids pair is water-lithium bromide (LiBr). Gas-fired H2O/LiBr chillers are currently used in the low cooling capacity range starting at about 4 kW. Thus, it is possible to install these kinds of chillers for several building sizes, from single-family residential to large commercial buildings. The choice of the working pair 978-1-61284-266-0/10/$26.00 2010 IEEE

2. Lithium bromide-water absorption machine

The working principle of an absorption system (Fig. 1) is similar to that of a vapor compression machine with respect to the key components evaporator and condenser. The refrigerant (water) evaporates in the evaporator producing the useful cooling effect, Qev. The water vapor (3) flows to the absorber where it is absorbed by the salt rich solution (LiBr) returning from the generator (10). The absorber can be air- or water-cooled; in the latter case a cooling tower is necessary to keep the cooling process going. The dilute salt solution exiting the absorber (4) is pumped (5) through the regenerative solution heat exchanger-where it is pre-heated (6)--in the generator where it is heated above its boiling point temperature, so that refrigerant vapor is released (7). The concentrated 331

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Technical and economic analysis of a solar assisted air-conditioning system, Z. Sayadi et al.
solution (8) flows back to the absorber. The desorbed refrigerant (7) condenses in the air- or water-cooled condenser. The condensate (1) is passed thereafter through an expansion valve where its pressure is so reduced as to provoke its partial evaporation causing a substantial decrease of its temperature. The refrigerant flows finally in the evaporator (2) to complete the evaporation. The cold production sub-system. The heat released in this unit by the absorber and the condenser is discharged indirectly to the environment through a cooling tower. The heat production sub-system: It provides the high temperature heat to the thermally driven air-conditioning system. Besides the solar collector field, other key components are the thermal storage unit, the pumps and the thermostat controllers. Furthermore, depending on the system needs (insufficient solar radiation, inadequate collector area, etc.) a back-up heat source incorporated. In this paper, it is assumed that a gas heater provides the auxiliary thermal energy.

4. Solar air-conditioning system analysis

The investigations of the solar cooling system consist of the four following steps: House cooling loads assessment using TRNBUILD, a component of TRNSYS. Absorption machine modeling and simulation using the EES software without considering that the driving heat is supplied to the generator by the solar components. Whole system simulation using TRNSYS. Technical-economical analysis of the solar cooling system to find out the optimal collector area and system components resulting in the best energy cost-performance. As indicated earlier, a water-cooling scenario with a cooling-tower is considered. The choice of water-cooling is thermodynamically more favorable than air-cooling. It presents however the drawback of using water as cooling medium-rather scarce in arid and semi-arid regions--hence the need of a cooling-tower to minimize the water consumption.

Figure 1. Solar-assisted air conditioning installation using LiBr/water absorption machine In the lithium-bromide water chillers, crystallization of the salt may occur at higher salt concentrations and lower temperatures [2] as it can be the case in the salt rich solution on its way to the absorber after cooling in the solution HX. As discussed later in this paper, such a situation can be avoided by finding out the appropriate operating conditions that must prevail in this machine compartment under which the crystallization cannot occur.

4.1 TRNSYS program description

TRNSYS is a complete and extensible simulation environment for the transient simulation of systems, including multi-zone buildings. It is used by engineers and researchers around the world to validate new energy concepts, from simple domestic hot water systems to the design and simulation of buildings and their equipment, including control strategies, occupant behavior, alternative energy systems (wind, solar, photovoltaic, hydrogen systems) [5]. A TRNSYS project is typically setup by connecting components graphically in the Simulation Studio. Each Type of component is described by a mathematical model in the TRNSYS simulation engine and has a set matching Performas in the simulation studio. The Performa has a block-box description of a component: inputs, outputs, parameters, etc.

3. Solar cooling system

A solar-assisted air-conditioning system for a singlefamily residential building is composed of three major sub-systems [1] (Fig.1): The load sub-system: This is the distribution system for the cold medium (supply and return) It is connected to the delivery terminals located at space to be airconditioned in the building.

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4.2 Cooling loads estimation
The house considered has a 170 m2 floor area and it is modeled, under the climatic conditions of Tunis city, as a multi-zone building (Type 56 in the TRNSYS library) with three bedrooms, a living room, a dining room, two bathrooms and a kitchen. The different zones are specified in TRNBUILD (building visual interface used to enter input data for multi-zone buildings). It allows specifying all the building structure details, as well as everything that is needed to simulate the thermal behavior of the building, such as window optical properties, layers and walls type, heating and cooling schedules, etc. The construction is selected from a list with descriptions of standard constructions and materials [5]. The convective and radiant losses and gains are calculated within TRNBUILD after selecting the zone construction. A number of pre-defined input parameters and variables (occupancy, internal gain, comfort, infiltration, ventilation, weather data, etc.) have to be specified.
0,8 COP 0,7 0,6 0,5 8 Qev (kW) 10 12

0,4 0,3 0,2 0,1 0 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98

Generator inlet temperature (C)

Figure 3. Effect of the hot water inlet temperature on the performance of the machine o

Absorber

m 3 h3 m10 h10 m 4 h4 Q ab
m14 h14 m13 h13 Q ab

(4.1) (4.2) (4.3) (4.4) (4.5)

m3 m10 m 4
m14 m13
Qab (U A) ab ( LMTD) ab

Figure 2. Evolution of the cooling needs with the ambient air temperature in Tunis City during the simulation period May-October The cooling requirement is calculated by setting the desired indoor temperature at 26C during the summer period from May to October. The evolution of the cooling needs during this period is shown in figure 2. It turns out that the buildings cooling loads in hot summer are of 11.5 kW. In order to save energy while ensuring almost the same thermal comfort, it is usual to consider that the machine covers the cooling needs of the house for 95% of the simulation period, which fixes its nominal capacity to 7 kW.

Generator

m 7 h7 m 8 h8 m 6 h6 Q g m12 h12 m11 h11 Q g

(4.6) (4.7) (4.8) (4.9)

m12 m11
Q g (U A) g ( LMTD) g
o Condenser

4.3 Chiller operating conditions 4.3.1 Machine model

m 7 h7 m1 h1 Q c m16 h16 m15 h15 Q c

(4.10) (4.11) (4.12)

In order to assess the performance of the chiller, numerous simulations are carried out using the EES program [6]. The model equations for the various equipment components (absorber, generator, condenser, evaporator, solution heat exchanger, solution expansion valve, pump and throttle) are given below.

m 7 m1

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Cooling capacity (kW)

COP

Technical and economic analysis of a solar assisted air-conditioning system, Z. Sayadi et al.
m15 m16 m14
Qc (U A) c ( LMTD) c

(4.13) (4.14) (4.15)

Evaporator

m 3 h3 m 2 h2 Q ev m17 h17 m18 h18 Q ev

(4.16) (4.17) (4.18)

m 2 m3 m17 m18
o

The nominal operating conditions and the heat exchange characteristics of the different machine components are presented in table 1. A preliminary study was performed to investigate the effect of the driving heat temperature and the hot water flow rate on the performance of the machine (Fig.3). These two factors together specify the thermal power and the quality of the driving heat. It is found that the COP (Eq. 4.31) increases with increasing generator temperature and can reach as a high value as 0.7. It is noted however that small fluctuations of the hot water temperature can cause a significant decrease of the COP and consequently, the machine produces far fewer cooling capacity. Figure 3 shows that a hot water temperature of 95C providing a cooling capacity of 7 kW is appropriate for our system. Table 1. Typical operating parameters for the water-cooled single effect LiBr/H2O chiller Cooling capacity (kW) 7 Solution heat exchanger effectiveness 0.64 Solution flow rate (kg/s) Cooling medium flow rate (kg/s) Refrigerant flow rate (kg/s) Evaporator outlet temperature (C) Evaporator pressure (kPa) Cooling medium temp. at condenser inlet C) Cooling medium temp. at absorber inlet (C) Chilled water temperatures (C) (UA)c (kW K-1) (UA)ab (kW K-1) (UA)g (kW K-1) (UA)ev (kW K-1) 0.056 1.84 0.335 5 0.87 32 29 12/7 0.686 1.457 2.753 1.753

Solution HX

m1 h1 m 9 h9 m 6 h6 m 5 h5

(4.19) (4.20) (4.21) (4.22) (4.23)

m5 m6

m8 m 9
x5 x 6 x8 x9
o

Expansion valve

m10 h10 m 9 h9

(4.24) (4.25) (4.26)

m10 m 9
x10 x9
o

The simulation performance results of the watercooled LiBr/water chiller are summarized in tables 2 and 3. Table 2. Simulation results m T H P (C) (kJ/kg) (kg/s) (kPa) 44 184.2 0.003 9.1 4.575 5 34 34 63.72 87.41 85.21 52.43 40.95 95 184.2 2510 82.36 82.36 143.6 2663 197.1 132.4 132.4 2679 0.003 0.003 0.056 0.056 0.056 0.003 0.053 0.053 0.053 0.8 0.87 0.87 0.87 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1 9.1 0.87 x (%) 0 0 0 55.31 55.31 55.31 0 58.45 58.45 58.45

Throttle

m1 h1 m 2 h2

(4.27) (4.28)

Location 1 2 3 4

m1 m 2

Pump

m 2 h2 m1 h1

(4.29) (4.30)

5 6 7 8

x2 x1
o Chiller performance
Qev Qg

COP

(4.31)

9 10 11

4.3.2
334

Cycle simulation

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Technical and economic analysis of a solar assisted air-conditioning system, Z. Sayadi et al.
12 13 14 15 16 17 18 88.32 29 31.88 32 34.16 12 7.004 2666 2554 2560 2560 2564 50.36 29.43 0.8 1.84 1.84 1.84 1.84 0.3345 0.3345 In the following is a brief description of the different Types used in Figure 4. The absorption chiller hosts the chiller programmed in EES. It is a utility subroutine which calls EES (external program) where the equations can be solved based on the components inputs and sends the results back to TRNSYS. The necessary inputs from TRNSYS to EES program are the hot water temperature and flow rate driving the machine generator and coming from the insulated storage tank.

Table 3. Performance of the chiller Chiller component Energy (kW) Evaporator Absorber Generator Condenser

Simulation results

Qev

7 9.958 10.42 7.463

Qab

Qg
Qc

4.3.3

Solar cooling simulations TRNSYS model

The analysis is made for typical meteorological data for Tunis city in the Mediterranean zone (Fig. 5). The solar sub-system consists of a 1 m3 hot water storage tank, evacuated tube collector tilted 35 from the horizontal and a thermal back-up source provided by a gas heater. The water flow rate per unit collector is 50 l/h m2. The simulation period extends from May to October corresponding to the hot period of the year where air-conditioning is required (Figure 2). We investigate the influence of the collector surface area on the solar gain and the auxiliary heat required (Fig. 8). The pressurized water heating the generator temperature is maintained at 95C for the water-cooled machine. As expected, the larger the collector area, the more is the collected solar radiation and hence the produced heat and the lesser the auxiliary energy. The back-up heat power varies between 0.84 kW and 8 kW.

Figure 4 presents the simulation model of the solar airconditioning system under TRNSYS environment. Each component is referred to by a Type number (for example Type 56) and represents a type block programmed in FORTRAN with inputs, outputs and parameters. Each type corresponds to a FORTRAN subroutine.

ZT1 : Mediterranean zone ZT2 : North zone ZT3 : South zone

Figure 5. Tunisia climate zoning

Figure 4. TRNSYS simulation model of the solar air-conditioning system ThETA3_077 335

Technical and economic analysis of a solar assisted air-conditioning system, Z. Sayadi et al.
11 10 9 8 7 Auxiliary energy Solar gain energy

5. Economical optimization
We focus now attention on the cost performance analysis in order to assess the economic viability of the project. We first calculate the discounted annual total costs C ATd by summing up all the discounted investment costs for each component of the entire system amortized for an expected life time of 15 years and the discounted annual expenses C Ad including the maintenance and inspection costs CM estimated as 2% of the investment charges and the operating energy costs (gas costs). The annual costs are weighed up by the equation:

Energy (kW)

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45

Collector surface (m)

C A C E CM (5.1)
The energy costs are calculated as follows:

Figure 6. Auxiliary energy needs and solar gain vs. collector area Figure 7 shows the evolution of the solar fraction f
f Quse Qbu

C E Qbu CkWh (1 f ) (5.2)

The annual expenses are not constant. They depend on two parameters: the Increase in Energy Costs IEC estimated at 7.4% and the Discount Rate DR which is the rate of return required for a project to compensate for its risk. The DR is estimated at 8.28% for the year 2008. Thus, calculation of the discounted annual costs is based on the Eq. 5.3.

(4.32) with the collector surface area. As observed, it gets higher with larger collector area, but the auxiliary energy is not vanishing even if the solar heat covers 100% of the energy needs of the system. Thus, in any case, fossil fuel make-up energy is necessary to ensure the required pressurized water temperature of 95C. The above performed technical analysis is insufficient to find out the optimal collector surface for our solar air-conditioning installation because the economical aspects of the problem have not yet been considered.

C Ad C
(5.3) with

DR (1 DR ) T (1 DR ) T 1

)t

T 15 t

C A (1 DR) t (1 IEC )

(5.4) After estimating the discounted investment costs C Id

100% 90% 80% 70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 5 10 15

C Id C I 0
(5.5)

DR (1 DR ) T (1 DR ) T 1

(%)

for a life-time period T=15 years, the discounted annual total costs are calculated using the following equation

C ATd C Id C Ad (5.6)

Collector surface (m)

20

25

30

35

40

Figure 7. Solar fraction vs. collector area

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Technical and economic analysis of a solar assisted air-conditioning system, Z. Sayadi et al.
3005

2505

It can also be noted that the costs of the solar system can be further optimized by exploiting the solar collector field to produce solar heat to match other loads as space heating or domestic hot water production during winter.

7. References
2005

Total costs 1505

1005

Investment costs

30 m2

505

Annual costs

5 5 10 15 20

25

30

35

40

45

Collector surface (m)

Figure 8. Economical analysis The results of the economical analysis are represented in figure 8. Because the evolution of the discounted annual and the investment costs with the collector area are opposed, the discounted total fees exhibits a minimum. We find that the minimum the total costs of about 1608 US $ per year, corresponding to a collector area of 30 m2.

[1] H.M. Henning, 2004-2007, Solar-Assisted Air conditioning in Buildings, Springer Wien New York. [2] D.S. Kim & C.A. Infante Ferreira, 2009, Air-cooled LiBrwater absorption chillers for solar air-conditioning in extremely hot weathers, Energy Conversion and Management, In press. [3] J. Castaing-Lasvignottes, , 2004, Aspects Thermodynamiques et Technico-conomiques des Systmes absorption liquide, Institut Franais du Froid Industriel. [4] R.A. Zogg & M.Y. Feng.; D. Westphalen, 2005, Guide to Developing Air-Cooled LiBr Absorption for Combined Heat and Power Applications, Distributed Energy Program Report; U.S Department of Energy. [5] S .A. Klein, J.A. Duffie, J.C. Mitchell, JP. Kummer, W.A. Bechkman, N.A. Duffie & Al, 1994, TRNSYS- a Transient Simulation Program users manual, University of Wisconsin-Madison. [6] S.A. Klein, 1992-2008, EES- Engineering Equation Solver, Users manual and program documentation.

Costs (US $)

Optimal collector surface

Nomenclature
C P Q T UA f Quse Qbu LMTD h x Coefficient of performance Pressure, mBar Heat flow rate, kW Temperature, C Thermal conductance, kW K-1 Solar fraction, % useful solar heat, kW heat from the back-up, kW Logarithm temperature difference Specific enthalpy, kJ kg-1 % mass fraction of LiBr in salt solution mass flow rate, kg s-1 Annual costs, US $ Energy costs, US $ Maintenance costs, US $ Initial investment, US $ Discounted annual costs, US $ Increasing Energy Cost, % Discounting rate, % Cost of kWh of gas, US $ Discounted annual costs, US $ Discounted investment, US $ costs Expected life-time, year

6. CONCLUSION
In this paper, we have investigated the technical and economical feasibility of a solar air-conditioning system using a single effect lithium bromide watercooled machine with a nominal capacity of 7 kW. The system is optimized for a middle typical house of 170 m2. It is found that 30m2 evacuated tube collector area associated to a 1m3 hot water storage tank can covers 87% of the heat needs of the water-cooled H2O/LiBr chiller. is by The annual total costs of evaluated to 1608 $. These costs are rather high compared to those of a common air-conditioning system using vapor compression technique. But we should not forget that the absorption technique is yet suffering from a scale factor: If the absorption chillers were as widespread as the usual air-conditioner, their price would be surely comparable. On the other hand, the fossil fuel-based energy is expected to increase steadily in the future, so that the solar assisted air-conditioning system would become economically more viable. Further advantages of the absorption chilling are: reduced electricity demand and elimination of the use of harmful working fluids (CFCs, CHFCs, etc.).

m
CA CE CM
C I0
C ATd
IEC

DR
C kWh
C Ad

C Id

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Subscripts c ev g ab US $ Condenser Evaporator Generator Absorber United States Dollar

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