Solar-powered hybrid heating/adsorption cooling device: design and experimental test

Abstract

A new class of hybrid (heating and cooling) solar collector has been designed, built and tested. The collector combines an adsorption generator and a heat removal tubing. The tubing speeds up the evaporation stage of the cooling cycle and can also be used to deliver hot water. A small prototype (0.97 m²collection area) has been incorporated to an installation, which was tested in Burgos (northern Spain, 42°20′ N, 3°40′ W, 840 m above sea level). Two operation modes (summer and winter) are allowed. In summer mode, the installation delivers and stores domestic hot water and cold water; solar COP averaged 0.13 in our experimental campaign, and domestic hot water production was 3.1 MJ per day. When domestic hot water production is disabled, the average solar COP is reduced by 30%. In winter mode, domestic hot water and hot water for space heating are produced; combined production reached 55% of average daily solar radiation.