A comprehensive comparative investigation on solar heating and cooling technologies from a thermo‐economic viewpoint—A dynamic simulation

Abstract

The yearly thermo-economic performance is dynamically investigated for three solar heating and cooling systems: solar heating and absorption cooling (SHAC), solar heating and ejector cooling (SHEC), and heating and solar vapor compression cooling (HSVC). First, the effects of important design parameters on the thermoeconomic performance of the systems to supply the heating and cooling loads of the building are evaluated. The systems are parametrically analyzed with the weather conditions of Tehran, Iran. The results show that the life cycle costs (LCC) of the SHAC and HSVC systems are alike and much lower than those of the SHEC system. The HSVC system exhibits the best performance from exergetic and solar fraction viewpoints. The comparative analysis shows that the energy efficiencies of the SHAC and SHEC systems are higher in colder climatic conditions. However, the collector efficiency of the HSVC system declines in colder climates, mainly due to the lower solar intensities relative to in hotter climates. Further, the solar fraction of the SHAC system is higher than the SHEC technology under all climatic conditions. Moreover, higher values of solar fractions are obtained under colder weather conditions for the SHEC and HSVC systems. The best economic performance is observed for the SHAC and HSVC technologies, having significantly lower LCCs than the SHEC system. These lower LCCs under colder climatic conditions are due to the lower cost of supplying the heating load compared to the cooling load. Furthermore, all systems exhibit enhanced exergetic performance in colder weather conditions. The yearly thermo-economic performance is dynamically investigated for three solar heating and cooling systems: SHAC, SHEC, and HSVC. In addition, the effects of important design parameters on the thermo-economic performance of the systems to supply the heating and cooling loads of the building are evaluated. K E Y W O R D Sabsorption chiller, dynamic simulation, ejector cooling, solar cooling and heating, thermoeconomic analysis | 725 JAFARI MOSLEH Et AL.

Dynamic simulation of a solar ejector‐based trigeneration system using TRNSYS‐EES co‐simulator

“…Another way to improve energy consumption in buildings is to use the ejector cooling cycle in solar CCHP systems. The ejector has a simple structure that consumes no energy due to the lack of moving components and consequently reduces CO 2 pollution 25 . Godfroy et al 26 investigated the design of a trigeneration system based on the gas engine mini‐CHP unit (5.5 kW e ) and the ejector cooling cycle.…”