Solar powered air conditioner

This paper presents the design of 0.5 tonnes solar air conditoner. The design of energy systems becomes more important due to limitations of fossil fuels and the environmental impact during their use. Energy systems are complex as they involve in economic, technical and environmental factors. The continuous increase in the cost and demand for energy has led to more research and development to utilize available energy resources efficiently by minimizing waste energy. Absorption refrigeration systems increasingly attract research interests. Absorption cooling offers the possibility of using heat to provide cooling. The objective of this paper is to design and study an environment friendly vapour absorption refrigeration system of half unit capacity using R 717 (NH3) and water as the working fluids. The system is designed and tested for various operating conditions using hot water as heat source. The basic idea of this paper is derived from the solar water heating panel installed on the hostel roofs of the institute.