Abstract:
This paper presents the performance of a small solar hot water system equipped with a split type air
conditioner. This hybrid system is comprised of a compact heat exchanger having a total area of
0.154 m the power of 2, a solar collector panel with area of 2.16 m the power of 2,
a water storage tank with 60 L capacity and
air conditioner with cooling capacity of 12500 BTU/hr. The tested house had a dimension of
2x2x1.4 m (WxLxH). The water mass flow rate was fixed at 0.05 kg/s. The main factors in this
study were the temperature of producing hot water, ratio of heat gained between solar and air
conditioner, COP of the air conditioner, efficiency of solar collector and the system. Two
configurations of the hybrid systems were tested. Under the solar radiation of 628.65 W/m the power of 2,
the first configuration had the average temperature of producing hot water at 59.92 C, heat from air
conditioner to solar at 0.16 and 0.81 kW, respectively, average efficinecy of solar collector 42%
COP of air conditioner at 3.15 by average and the overall thermal efficiency of the system at 44%
The second configuration tested under the solar radiation of 484.03 W/m the power of 2, had the average
temperature of producing hot water at 53.84 C, heat from air conditioner to solar at 0.14 and 0.62
kW, average efficiency of solar collector at 28%, COP of air conditioner at 3.56 by average and the
overall thermal efficiency of the system at 37%. Both configurations gave the higner COP compared
to the specification derived from manufactory. Economical analysis for the systems was also done.
It was found that the payback period was 4.97 year with the intermal rate or return of 20 %.
Simulation of the systems was performed using program TRNSYS. The comparison results showed
that RMSE of both system configurations was not exceeded 5 %.