Nighttime Cooling System Using Solar Thermal Energy

Abstract

A lot of electric energy is consumed for greenhouse cooling in nighttime. In this study, a nighttime cooling system using solar thermal energy was developed. That is a kind of intermittent absorption refrigerating systems. Solar heat is stored as the energy of concentration differentials of the solutions in daytime. The energy is used for cooling at night. The system consists of 3 major components those are a regenerator/radiator, a solution tank and an evaporator/condenser. The regenerator/radiator collects solar heat in daytime, and radiates the absorption heat at night. A modified flat plate solar collector was used for the component. From the results of experiments, the basic operation principle of the developed system was verified.