Solar HVAC

Solar air-conditioning units can leverage the sun’s heat to drive either thermal absorption cycles or desiccant cooling.

The unit I'm now supplying in NC is a combination of two well established technologies - solar thermal collectors and absorption chillers.

Absorption chiller air conditioners are already a very widely deployed technology, very popular for large commercial installations in Asia and the US. They are simple, dependable and use no Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).   Most, however, are using heat sources other than solar. In part, that's because they require high heat - higher than flat panel collectors can produce.

What has now made solar AC possible for a residential or small commercial application is the emergence of evacuated tube collectors and the availability of smaller scale absorption chillers and smaller cooling towers.

When engineered to run on solar energy the absorption chiller AC units provide the lowest cost to operate and the best return on investment of any air conditioning system in the world. In North Carolina with our excellent 35% State tax incentive the payback can be as short as 2 years. And they can be configured to supply heat in Winter as well.

Our solar heating and air conditioning units can be used anywhere that the sun shines. They are low in operating and maintenance costs and consume very little electricity - which can be supplied by solar PV panels.

[addendum 1/15/08] - These units are currently available only in 10, 20 and 30 ton sizes. A 5 ton unit may become available next year. So they're most applicable to commercial installations.

Contact me for more information and to discuss the applicability of this system for your project. Or read more technical information here.

For a source of more general technical information see this article in Renewable Energy World.

Comments

[Commercial Air Conditioner]

I hope this technology would also be applied to other parts of the country especially now that we are experiencing problems regarding climate change. Thanks for sharing this technology.