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Solar Heating & Cooling

A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 December 2015) | Viewed by 37455

Special Issue Editor

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Auckland University of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
Interests: solar and renewable energy systems; experimental and computational heat transfer and fluid mechanics; sustainable built environments; heat pumps and refrigeration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

In recent times, there has been a renewed interest in the use of solar energy as a source of thermal energy. Despite the advances made in harnessing solar thermal energy, there is still an imbalance between when solar heating is available and when it is required. However, if this heat is used in thermally driven refrigerators, air-conditioners, and cooling systems, the aforesaid imbalance can foreseeably be corrected. In achieving this outcome, there are a number of challenges, including the development of medium and high temperature solar collectors to drive these systems, smaller scale cooling machines, and innovative and efficient cooling devices and cycles. Given the potential for solar thermal cooling systems in the future, this Special Issue will explore some recent advances that have been made in the field of solar heating and cooling and their applications.

Dr. Timothy Anderson
Guest Editor


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Keywords

  • solar cooling
  • solar collectors
  • absorption refrigeration
  • adsorption chiller
  • desiccant cooling
  • ejector cooling

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

6202 KiB  
Article
Closed Solar House with Radiation Filtering Roof for Transplant Production in Arid Regions: Energy Consumption
by Ahmed M. Abdel-Ghany, Ibrahim M. Al-Helal, Abdullah A. Alsadon, Abdullah A. Ibrahim and Mohamed R. Shady
Energies 2016, 9(3), 136; https://doi.org/10.3390/en9030136 - 26 Feb 2016
Viewed by 4416
Abstract
Under harsh weather conditions, closed transplant production systems (CTPS) are currently used to produce high quality transplants under artificial lighting. More than 70% of the electric energy consumed in the CTPS is for lighting. This article presents a simulation study to examine the [...] Read more.
Under harsh weather conditions, closed transplant production systems (CTPS) are currently used to produce high quality transplants under artificial lighting. More than 70% of the electric energy consumed in the CTPS is for lighting. This article presents a simulation study to examine the possibility of using an alternative closed solar house, with radiation filtering roof, for transplant production in hot sunny regions to replace the artificial lighting in the CTPS with sunlight. The sidewalls of the house were insulated as in the CTPS and the roof was transparent, and made from polycarbonate hollow-channeled structure. There was a liquid radiation filter (LRF) (1.5% CuSO4–water solution) flowing in a closed loop through the roof channels to absorb the solar heat load (i.e., the near infra-red radiation, NIR: 700–2500 nm) and transmit the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR: 400–700 nm) for plant growth. The LRF inlet temperature was assumed to be 25 °C to prevent vapor condensation on the inner surface of the cover. The evapo-transpired water vapor was removed immediately to maintain the relative humidity inside the house at 70%. The results proved that this technique can offer an appropriate air temperature inside the house less than outside air temperature by around 8–10 °C in hot summer days, and the integrated electric energy consumption during the production period was estimated to be around 43% of the CTPS consumption. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Heating & Cooling)
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1937 KiB  
Article
Device Performance Improvement of Double-Pass Wire Mesh Packed Solar Air Heaters under Recycling Operation Conditions
by Chii-Dong Ho, Hsuan Chang, Chun-Sheng Lin, Chun-Chieh Chao and Yi-En Tien
Energies 2016, 9(2), 68; https://doi.org/10.3390/en9020068 - 22 Jan 2016
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 5042
Abstract
The improvement of device performance of a recycling solar air heater featuring a wire mesh packing was investigated experimentally and theoretically. The application of the wire mesh packing and recycle-effect concept to the present study were proposed aiming to strengthen the convective heat-transfer [...] Read more.
The improvement of device performance of a recycling solar air heater featuring a wire mesh packing was investigated experimentally and theoretically. The application of the wire mesh packing and recycle-effect concept to the present study were proposed aiming to strengthen the convective heat-transfer coefficient due to increased turbulence. Comparisons were made among different designs, including the single-pass, flat-plate double-pass and recycling double-pass wire mesh packed operations. The collector efficiency of the recycling double-pass wire mesh packed solar air heater was much higher than that of the other configurations for various recycle ratios and mass flow rates scenarios. The power consumption increment due to implementing wire mesh in solar air heaters was also discussed considering the economic feasibility. A fairly good agreement between theoretical predictions and experimental measurements was achieved with an analyzed error of 1.07%–9.32%. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Heating & Cooling)
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3309 KiB  
Article
Radiometric Characterization, Solar and Thermal Radiation in a Greenhouse as Affected by Shading Configuration in an Arid Climate
by Ahmed M. Abdel-Ghany, Pietro Picuno, Ibrahim Al-Helal, Abdullah Alsadon, Abdullah Ibrahim and Mohamed Shady
Energies 2015, 8(12), 13928-13937; https://doi.org/10.3390/en81212404 - 08 Dec 2015
Cited by 39 | Viewed by 5355
Abstract
Shading the greenhouses is necessary in summer to reduce the solar radiation load. This however generates a considerable amount of thermal radiation heat load that needs to be removed via cooling systems. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different shading configurations [...] Read more.
Shading the greenhouses is necessary in summer to reduce the solar radiation load. This however generates a considerable amount of thermal radiation heat load that needs to be removed via cooling systems. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of different shading configurations on the solar and thermal radiation in a greenhouse. Nets at four different locations were employed to shade the roof and side-walls of a polycarbonate, mechanically ventilated greenhouse. The spectral radiative properties of all these plastic materials were measured in short and long wave spectrum bands. The net solar and thermal radiations and air temperature were measured outside and inside two identical shaded and unshaded greenhouses. The results showed that external roof-shading is desirable, as it reduced the generated thermal radiation in the greenhouse by 21% and 15% during the day and night time, respectively and reduced the greenhouse air temperature during the day. The internal shading (roof and side walls) is undesirable, since it drastically increased the generated thermal radiation in the greenhouse by 147% and strongly increased the greenhouse air temperature during the day. Shading the side-walls is not recommended because it significantly reduces the transmitted solar radiation in the morning and afternoon (when the outside irradiance is low) and is useless at around noon when the outside irradiance is extremely high. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Heating & Cooling)
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8673 KiB  
Article
Study on the Performance of a Ground Source Heat Pump System Assisted by Solar Thermal Storage
by Yu Jin Nam, Xin Yang Gao, Sung Hoon Yoon and Kwang Ho Lee
Energies 2015, 8(12), 13378-13394; https://doi.org/10.3390/en81212365 - 25 Nov 2015
Cited by 44 | Viewed by 8498
Abstract
A ground source heat pump system (GSHPS) utilizes a relatively stable underground temperature to achieve energy-saving for heating and cooling in buildings. However, continuous long-term operation will reduce the soil temperature in winter, resulting in a decline in system performance. In this research, [...] Read more.
A ground source heat pump system (GSHPS) utilizes a relatively stable underground temperature to achieve energy-saving for heating and cooling in buildings. However, continuous long-term operation will reduce the soil temperature in winter, resulting in a decline in system performance. In this research, in order to improve the system performance of a GSHPS, a ground heat pump system integrated with solar thermal storage was developed. This solar-assisted ground heat pump system (SAGHPS) can both maintain the balance of the soil temperature effectively and achieve higher system performance than the conventional system. In this paper, in order to examine the characteristics of the system, a dynamic simulation was conducted under various conditions. The results of our case study provide specific operation data such as heat exchange rate, heat source temperature, and heat pump COP. As a result, the heat pump COP of SAGHPS was 4.7%, 9.3% higher than that of the GSHPS. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Heating & Cooling)
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3545 KiB  
Article
Multi-Objective Optimization Design for Indirect Forced-Circulation Solar Water Heating System Using NSGA-II
by Myeong Jin Ko
Energies 2015, 8(11), 13137-13161; https://doi.org/10.3390/en81112360 - 19 Nov 2015
Cited by 12 | Viewed by 6879
Abstract
In this study, the multi-objective optimization of an indirect forced-circulation solar water heating (SWH) system was performed to obtain the optimal configuration that minimized the life cycle cost (LCC) and maximized the life cycle net energy saving (LCES). An elitist non-dominated sorting genetic [...] Read more.
In this study, the multi-objective optimization of an indirect forced-circulation solar water heating (SWH) system was performed to obtain the optimal configuration that minimized the life cycle cost (LCC) and maximized the life cycle net energy saving (LCES). An elitist non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) was employed to obtain the Pareto optimal solutions of the multi-objective optimization. To incorporate the characteristics of practical SWH systems, operation-related decision variables as well as capacity-related decision variables were included. The proposed method was used to conduct a case study wherein the optimal configuration of the SWH system of an office building was determined. The case study results showed that the energy cost decreases linearly and the equipment cost increases more significantly as the LCES increases. However, the results also showed that it is difficult to identify the best solution among the Pareto optimal solutions using only the correlation between the corresponding objective function values. Furthermore, regression analysis showed that the energy and economic performances of the Pareto optimal solutions are significantly influenced by the ratio of the storage tank volume to the collector area (RVA). Therefore, it is necessary to simultaneously consider the trade-off and the effect of the RVA on the Pareto optimal solutions while selecting the best solution from among the optimal solutions. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Heating & Cooling)
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5101 KiB  
Article
A Novel Design Method for Optimizing an Indirect Forced Circulation Solar Water Heating System Based on Life Cycle Cost Using a Genetic Algorithm
by Myeong Jin Ko
Energies 2015, 8(10), 11592-11617; https://doi.org/10.3390/en81011592 - 16 Oct 2015
Cited by 15 | Viewed by 6688
Abstract
To maximize the energy performance and economic benefits of solar water heating (SWH) systems, the installation and operation-related design variables as well as those related to capacity must be optimized. This paper presents a novel design method for simultaneously optimizing the various design [...] Read more.
To maximize the energy performance and economic benefits of solar water heating (SWH) systems, the installation and operation-related design variables as well as those related to capacity must be optimized. This paper presents a novel design method for simultaneously optimizing the various design variables of an indirect forced-circulation SWH system that is based on the life cycle cost and uses a genetic algorithm. The effectiveness of the proposed method is assessed by evaluating the long-term performance corresponding to four cases, which are optimized using different annual solar fractions and sets of the design variables. When the installation and operation-related design variables were taken into consideration, it resulted in an efficient and economic design and an extra cost reduction of 3.2%–6.1% over when only the capacity-related design variables were considered. In addition, the results of parametric studies show that the slope and mass flow rate of the collector have a significant impact on the energy and economic performances of SWH systems. In contrast, the mass flow rate in the secondary circuit and the differences in the temperatures of the upper and lower dead bands of the differential controller have a smaller impact. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Solar Heating & Cooling)
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