Improving performance of direct expansion air conditioning systems while reducing electricity consumption through using hybrid energy

Abstract

At the present time, operating hybrid air-conditioning systems that use solar energy to saving electrical energy while improving the performance has become necessary to protect the environment, reduce pollution and emissions caused by using fuels and gases. In Iraq, temperatures reach half the boiling point at summer, therefore the demand for air conditioning systems increases, air conditioning systems consume more than half of average electricity production which affects on reliability and stability of the electrical energy thus leads to a continuous power outage. So, the issue of using renewable energies becomes more attractive. Because of saving energy leads to ensuring the reliability of electricity and reduces the consumption of fuels and gases that pollute on the environment and negatively affect on the ozone layer. In the current research, the atmosphere of Baghdad city was used to collect solar thermal energy and convert it into thermal energy through an evacuated solar collector by water and combine it with a conventional air conditioner in the part that follows the compressor in order to reduce the electrical energy consumption on the compressor and increase coefficient of performance. Several tests were conducted on the proposed system to compare results with the conventional system and evaluate performance. The results showed that the coefficient of performance with the hybrid system became 8.97 more efficient instead of 4.27 compared to the conventional system, and the energy consumption decreased by 52%.