Experimental Evaluation of a Solar-Powered Air Conditioner

Abstract

Air conditioning is vital in maintaining indoor comfort and improving air quality, particularly in regions with high temperatures and humidity. However, the increasing demand for air conditioning has significant implications for energy consumption and the environment. Solar air conditioning can play a vital role in mitigating such impacts. This study presents an experimental setup that utilizes a solar photovoltaic system to power an air conditioning unit. The system is installed in a 36 m2-research lab at The University of Jordan, equipped with PV panels with a capacity of 2.67 kWp, a battery pack, a charge controller, an inverter charger, and an air conditioning unit. Two testing scenarios are conducted: an on-grid system connected to the electrical grid and an off-grid system operating independently. A clear sky day and a partially cloudy day were selected for each scenario in testing. The results were evaluated based on the solar fraction, energy consumption, and operational time fraction (OTF). The solar fraction was found to be higher during periods of higher demand and ambient temperature, and the average OTF was 70 % for all trials. In off-grid trials, the system had maintained operation solely on PV power during the studied load profile in the clear sky day. In contrast, limitations in charging power caused system shutdown in the partially cloudy trial. An economic analysis for the local payback period (PBP) was conducted based on the Hourly Analysis Program and PVsyst software simulation, which shows an attractive simple local PBP for on-grid and off-grid systems of 6.91 and 6.4 years, respectively.