Analysis of the Behavior of an Air Conditioning System Based on the Solar Energy Natural Regulation in Amazonian Climatic Conditions

Abstract

Air conditioning systems represent one of the main demands for electricity in residential, commercial and industrial buildings. The use of a photovoltaic air conditioning unit (PVACU) represents an attractive application to this demand for reasons such as environmental concerns and the match between diurnal cooling load and solar resource. A PVACU consists of a photovoltaic generator (PVG) that supply an air conditioning system (ACS) through DC-DC and frequency converters, without energy storage. This system considers the natural adjustment of the ACS cooling capacity according to the PVG power. Modelling the ACS, the PVG and the thermal load (TL) makes possible to evaluate PVACU performance. For this, a small library's TL and an ACS supplied by a PVG were used as case study. The PVG installed capacity assumes values of 700, 1000 and 1400 Wp. The simulation results show that the PVACU with a 1400 Wp PVG would be sufficient to regulate internal temperature within international comfort standards in the range of 20 °C to 24 °C. According to the data obtained in the simulations, it was possible to conclude that the PVACU has a large potential to be used in air conditioning of other environments in regions with Amazonian climatic conditions.

Exergetic Assessment and Computational Modeling of a Solar-Powered Directly-Coupled Air Conditioning System: An Application in Library Cooling

“…This work proposes an exergy analysis of an air conditioning system directly coupled to a photovoltaic generator (PV-ACS), via DC-DC converter and Electronic Speed Controller (ESC), without the use of a battery bank or an electrical grid system support, operating according to the natural regulation of solar energy in Amazonian climatic conditions, for different irradiance profiles (sunny and cloudy), following the methodology used by Santos et al [19] in the city of Belé m, capital of the state of Pará .…”

“…This work proposed an exergetic analysis of an air conditioning system directly coupled to a photovoltaic generator (PV-ACS), without batteries or grid support. The PV-ACS operates according to the natural regulation of solar energy for two days, with different irradiance profiles (sunny and cloudy), following the methodology used by Santos et al [19] in Belé m, the capital of the state of Pará -Brazil. The air conditioning system requires a minimum input power of approximately 0.30 kW to achieve the minimum cooling capacity, with an irradiance level of 240 W/m² being required in the PVG to generate this power.…”

“…Irradiance and outside air temperature data for typical sunny and cloudy days are used in this study. Measurements were taken at 10-minute intervals, following the methodology used by Santos et al [19].…”

“…The thermal load was calculated for the two analyzed days using the HAP software (Hourly Analysis Program 4.9). The Thermal Loads Table, as well as the library plant, can be found by Santos et al [19].…”

“…To estimate the temperature profile (T L ) inside the library from the moment the system starts operating was used the transfer function shown in Eq. (49) [19,35].…”