A study of Energy Efficiency and Exergy in a split-type air conditioning system with the solar collector

This research was a comparative study of energy efficiency and exergy on a split-type air conditioning system with the solar collector. The system consisted of a vapor compression with an inverter system, air-cool type condenser, R32 type of refrigerant, and 3.517 kW (12,000 Btu/h) of cooling capacity. To determine the system performance and the potential of energy saving between solar collector, two experiments were conducted as testing an air conditioner combined flat plate solar collector and testing an air conditioner combined vacuum tube solar collector. In which the copper tube is 3/8 inch. size, installed inside the solar collector. The cooling load for air conditioning was controlled at 1.0, 1.5, 2.0, 2.5 and 3.0 kW, in a room area 16 m2, at a constant room temperature of 25 ๐C, the time of testing 09.00 am – 05.00 pm. The result show that the air conditioner combined with vacuum tube solar collector was best energy efficiency and exergy efficiency, the coefficient of performant (COP) and energy 
efficiency ratio (EER) more than flat plate solar collector and higher than the commercial system, the electrical energy was consumed at 6.648 and 7.217 kWh/day (09.00 am - 05.00 pm). The payback is equal 1.52 and 1.6 year for vacuum tube and flat plate solar collector respectively.