EUROPEAN RESEARCH ON SOLAR-ASSISTED AIR-CONDITIONING

The utilization of waste heat, on the one hand, and solar heat, on the other, in order to energize sorption chillers is an important issue f or increasing the energy efficiency of cooling machines. Especially in the air-conditioning business, a tight correlation often exists betwe en insolation and cooling requirements. Therefore, the interest in sol ar cooling by sorption systems has prevailed for several decades. Some hundred systems have been installed all over the world and operate sa tisfactorily. However, no really cost-competitive system for widesprea d application exists. A step forward can only be expected by innovativ e design of the collectors, chillers, or both. This paper reports on t rends which might lead to such innovations. The sources are mainly pap ers and discussions at workshops held in 1994 in Dresden and 1995 in F reiburg and Garching, Germany. Although in these workshops mainly Euro pean experiences have been discussed, the conclusions are valid world- wide: generally, it can Se stated that several new ideas, both in coll ectors and chillers, have gained ground. Cheaper collectors providing higher temperatures have become available and specially designed chill ers for use with low-grade heat as input are being investigated. In th is paper we highlight the most important developments reported on in t he workshops mentioned above. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd and IIR. A ll rights reserved.