Design and performance of a solar-powered air-conditioning system in a green building

A solar-powered adsorption air-conditioning system was designed and installed in the green building of Shanghai Research Institute of Building Science. The system contained 150 m² solar collectors and two adsorption chillers with nominal refrigeration capacity of 8.5 kW. Based on performance characteristics of the adsorption chiller, the operation mode of the solar-powered air-conditioning system was optimized by maintaining a phase shift of 540 s between the two adsorption chillers. Thereafter, the whole system realized stable operation by the balance of heat consumption and refrigeration output. From June to August of 2005, the solar-powered air-conditioning system continuously ran between 9:00 and 17:00. The operation performance of the system under representative working condition showed that the average refrigeration output of the solar-powered air-conditioning system was 15.3 kW during an 8 h operation and the maximum value exceeded 20 kW. Solar fraction for the system in summer was 71.7%, which corresponded to the designed cooling load (15 kW). Compared with the ambient temperature, it was deduced that solar radiant intensity had a more distinct influence on the performance of solar-powered air-conditioning system.