Applications of solar air conditioning assisted systems in Sub-Saharan Africa for residential buildings

Abstract

This paper demonstrates how it is possible to set up a solar-powered air conditioning system to provide a comfortable environment for the residential buildings in Sub-Saharan Africa. This report discusses solar-powered air conditioners (a solar heat-driven refrigeration system with electricity as a backup). It focuses on the basic components of the system without elaborating on the auxiliary component such as air handling unit, and others components. In addition, this paper describes and develops a model and simulation of the collector to predict the working performance and efficiency of the collector face forweather in Sub-Saharan Africa. The collector used in this report for the experimentations is a vacuum air collector chosen randomly amongst collectors proposed by Integrated Simulation Environment Language (INSEL software). Although evacuated tubular collector is the most widely used in Sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate that the applicability of a solar air conditioning system is feasible in Sub-Saharan Africa. Such a system is capable of mitigating the consumption of energy in buildings by using the refrigerant that has low Ozone Depletion Potential andlow Global Warming Potential.