Energetic and exergetic performance evaluation of a solar cooling and heating system assisted with thermal storage

Abstract

In this paper, an integrated system aiming for heating and cooling production using solar energy is investigated. The system consisting of a solar driven adsorption chiller and radiation heating coupled with thermal energy storage is analysed thermodynamically, and its overall performance is assessed through energy and exergy efficiencies. The main goal is to compare performances of the system equipped with different thermal energy storage tank. Two thermal storage tank arrangements - a water TES and PCM TES - are discussed. These cases are later compared with the reference system without a storage tank. The results of the energy and exergy analyses of the reference case without thermal storage show that the seasonal energy and exergy efficiencies are 24.2% and 10.5%. Furthermore, by introducing thermal storage, energy and exergy performances of the system have improved significantly compared to the reference case. The annual energy and exergy efficiencies of the integrated system with water TES were 31.9% and 14.3%, respectively. Moreover, it was observed that the annual energy and exergy efficiencies of the system with PCM TES are slightly higher than for the system with water TES (1.5 and 0.7% points, respectively) for the same storage capacity.