Efficiency of a district heating network serving hot water absorption chillers

In the future, cooling needs will increase during the summer months because of an ever-increasing desire for comfort within buildings. Over the last d ecade, the use of absorption chillers has increased. These chillers require a heat source for their operation. When compared with conventional electri cally driven compressor chillers, the electrical energy requirements for ab sorption chillers are almost negligible. As a heat source, absorption chill ers can use fuel gases, fuel oils, steam and hot water. An analysis was made of the influence of the supply and return temperatures on the efficiency of district heating systems (DHSs), with hot-water-drive n absorption chillers (HWACs) as a component of a heat-driven distributed d istrict cooling system. An optimal configuration of HWACs was proposed. A c omparison between the efficiency of a DHS and HWACs for a range of hot wate r supply and return temperatures was made and an optimal operating temperat ure of 95/80 degreesC was estimated.