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In recent years, the world has made a significant effort to The solar energy collector is the energy source of the
reduce the electrical energy consumption which is one of solar air conditioning system that converts solar energy
the major causes of climate change and global warming. into heat energy. The collector is the hinge of the system
In Sub-Saharan Africa, more than 90% of electricity is while the collector model and simulations were developed
generated from fossil fuels [1]. However, fossil fuels are in this paper to predict the power output (working
the largest emitter of green-house gases (GHG). performance, efficiency and reliability) related to Sub-
According to some estimates, it is claimed that crude oil Saharan Africa weather.
and natural gas reserves will be depleted within 50 years
[2]. Furthermore, the energy demand is increasing These systems could be applied onresidential buildings as
proportionately to the population growth. auxiliary energy (AE). This report demonstrates how the
Sub-Saharan Africa, especially South African weather, is
The building sector is one of the largest consumers of related to the solar air conditioning technologies.
energy caused by heating, ventilation and air conditioning Moreover, the application of these technologies linked to
(HVAC) and lighting systems [3]. On the otherhand, the the Sub-Saharan Africa weather will be more reliable,
HVAC systems use a refrigerant that is not efficient and effective.
environmentally friendly and with high Ozone Depletion
Potential (ODP) and Global Warming Potential (GWP).
2. APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
3.2 SOLAR AIR CONDITIONING SYSTEM
The flourishing implementation of solar air conditioning
systems are directly related to suitable solar radiation and The HVAC systems and refrigeration system currently
indirectly to climate conditions. Therefore, the successful use electricity as source of energy. Recently, with the new
installation of solar air conditioning systems hinge on technologies, it is now possible to use clean energy (solar
adequate climatic conditions. In the design simulation is a energy) to drive HVAC systems. The HVAC system that
basic process for successful installations. The major uses solar energy is called a solar air conditioning system.
purpose of the simulation is to determine if the climatic The solar air conditioning system collects solar energy
conditions for the selected area are acceptable to set-up provided from the sun and converts it into electricity
solar air conditioning systems. The simulation will enable (photovoltaic cell), heat (thermal collector) or both
us to predict the solar radiation, and the anticipated (Figure1)
behavior, efficiency and performance for the systems.
This report used Integrated Simulation and This paper is focused on thermal collector; it presents
Environmental Language (INSEL) software tool for many advantages with lower investment costs compared
modelling and simulations. INSEL provides an integrated to photovoltaic cell. Converting the sun’s radiant energy
environment and a graphical programming language for into heat is the most common and well-developed solar
the creation of simulation applications. INSEL was conversion technology today [5].
originally developed for the modelling of renewable
energy systems with the basic idea to connect block to The solar air conditioning systems can be divided into
block diagrams that express a solution for certain two groups of systems: solar autonomous systems and
simulation tasks. solar assisted systems. In a solar autonomous system “all”
energy used by the air conditioning system is solar energy
3 HVAC SYSTEMS [5]. The word “all” is in quotation marks because often
systems called solar autonomous still use grid-provided
3.1. GENERALITY electricity for powering fans and pumps. The solar energy
covers a certain fraction of the energy used by the air
Human beings live in a hostile environment according to conditioning system [5]. This fraction is called the Solar
the weather, season of the year and geographical location. Fraction (SF,SOLF). The rest of the energy is supplied
To make the environment comfortable, several kinds of through an auxiliary or backup system. The auxiliary
Heating Ventilating Air Conditioning (HVAC) equipment system can be a separate air-conditioning system working
has been invented; from the small air conditioner in parallel with the solar system, or it can be integrated
(window unit), through several complex air conditioners into the solar air-conditioning system.Because of the
to solar air conditioning systems. auxiliary system, attainable indoor climate is not limited
by the availability of solar energy [2]. The focus when
The HVAC system’s functioning is primarily based on designing a solar air-conditioning system is the solar
thermodynamic principles and laws, namely; temperature, fraction [5].
pressure and volume, which deal with the relations among
heat, work and properties of system which are in The solar fraction is mathematically expressed as: (solar
equilibrium. The HVAC system deals with heat and mass energy used/total energy used)
transfer, fluid mechanics, expansion of gases and quantity
of motion. Both refrigeration and HVAC systems work on
thermodynamic cycles that are categorized into gas cycles
and vapor cycles [6].
Where;SFis solar fraction, PE is a primary energy
The vapor cycles can be subdivided into vapor
supplied to the system by the auxiliary source,ृcis solar
compression systems, vapor absorption systems, vapor jet
collector efficiency, Icis solar radiation [W/m2] and Ais
systems and so on. Vapor Compression systems and
solar collector aperture[m2]
Vapor absorption refrigeration systems are the most
commonly used systems. The HVAC systems are capable
3.2.1 Solar heat driven refrigeration system
of working in both closed and open loop, which means
the system is in contact with the atmosphere. On the
The vapor compression refrigeration system absorbs heat
market, HVAC and refrigeration systems, vapor
from one zone (lowest temperature) which is named
compression systems and vapor absorption refrigeration
source to another zone (highest temperature) called sink.
systems are the most commonly used method [7]. Both
As mentioned above, this system is a closed loop in which
systems are closed loop systems in which fluids flow. The
a fluid flows through the four main elements of the
main elements are the condenser, evaporator coils, air
system (evaporator, condenser, reversing valve and
filters, air handling unit and compressor for the vapor
compressor) shown in Figure 1. The functioning is based
compression system. Regarding the vapor absorption
on Carnot cycle.
refrigeration system, it has a pump instead of the
compressor. This paper is focused on the vapor
On the market, four major solar thermal driven cooling
compression system that presents more advantages as
components are available. These are absorption,
opposed to the vapor absorption system.
adsorption which is similar to absorption-but does not use Vapor absorption refrigeration systems have been
a pump, a rectifier, an ejector cooling system that is a commercialized and are widely used in various
thermally driven technology by low grade thermal energy, refrigeration and air conditioning applications [9].
and desiccant-an extension of the evaporative cooling
concept in which heat is absorbed by liquid from the 3.2.1.2Rankine refrigeration
substances in contact with it during the evaporation
process. There is also a close relation with latent heat of This paper investigates air conditioning systems using
vaporization of that liquid and the heat absorbed during vapor compression within the compressor which is driven
evaporation [2]. Normally, desiccants are able to obtain by a Rankine cycle system and electricity as a backup.
dry air and humidified air by dehumidifying the inlet air This entails that the air conditioning system combines a
and evaporative cooling. Furthermore, the Rankine power Rankine cycle system and vapor compression system as
cycle for refrigeration can be driven by the solar heat illustrated in Figure 1 and Figure 2. According to [2], the
energy to produce work output [5]. COP of vapor compression systems is the same with the
Rankine cycle, whereas the efficiency of the Rankine
Rankine cycle power is widely used in thermal energy to power cycle is directly related to the temperature of the
produce mechanical work. A Rankine cycle consists of sink and the source. The overall system performance can
the following main components such as: turbine which is be amplified by using a high efficiency flat plate flat
the major component, boiler, feeding pump, piping, and collector (FPC), evacuated tube collector (ETC) or
condenser (Figure 2). parabolic through collector (PTC).
5 CONCLUSIONS
6 BIBLIOGRAPHIES
7 AUTHORS