*2.2. Meteorological Data*

This section will highlight the analysis of potential solar data in Baghdad, Iraq. The main reason for this is to discover the potential power of renewable energy available at the location of operation. The meteorological conditions of Iraq correspond to a warm and dry climate during the summer season. Iraq has abundant solar energy capability with a significant amount of sunlight throughout the year as it is located in the Global Sunbelt. Solar energy can be widely deployed throughout two-thirds of Iraq. In the western and southern areas, daily average radiation ranges between 2800 and 3000 h, with relatively high average daily solar radiation of 6.5–7 kWh/m2. The direct and global solar irradiation is given in Figure 2, [26]. Thence, the study location has grea<sup>t</sup> potential for solar energy, allowing sufficient use of solar thermal power as a main prime mover for the absorption cooling system.

**Figure 2.** Iraq solar annual direct normal and global horizontal Irradiation map © 2019 The World Bank, Source: Global Solar Atlas 2.0, Solar resource data: Solargis [26].

The solar radiation data and environmental conditions used correspond to the TMY2 (typical meteorological year) format for Baghdad, the capital of Iraq (latitude is 33.3 N, longitude is 44.6 E, and Altitude 3.8 m). These data are provided by TRNSYS and have been obtained with Version 5 of the Meteonorm program.

Solar insolation varies according to the time of year. The daily highest solar irradiation of the globe is almost 8 kWh/m<sup>2</sup> and the daily highest temperature reaches over 45 ◦C (sometimes in summer season, the temperatures exceed 50 ◦C). A cooling effect is needed for seven months (April–October). During these months, the sunshine lasts for almost 10 hours per day, with an average total daylight of 13 hours per day [36].

#### *2.3. House Profile and Cooling Loads*

The proposed methodology was applied to a residential house located in Baghdad, Iraq. The house layout, wall layer details, and various construction components are given in Appendix A. As for the design of the house: the windows are on the north, east, and west walls; overhangs have a projection factor (overhang depth/window height) of 0.6. Two doors are on the north and east sides. Windows and doors are not specified on the south wall (to minimize heat gain through radiation). The window-to-gross-wall area is kept at 29%. The zone temperature is specified as 25 ◦C; the new design envelope specifications are as follows:


Concerning the house under study, the monthly cooling demand of the house is variable during the summer season. An enormous portion of that variable is involved in the cooling load configuration due to the (transient) storage nature inherent in the cooling load. The sum of the components of the cooling load gives the total load of the house building. The calculation of the cooling demand was carried out using CARRIER software, version 4.04 (Carrier Software Systems, Syracuse, NY, USA, 2015), based on weather data for Baghdad. The inside conditions: temperature 25 ◦C and relative humidity 50%, ambient summer design dry-bulb temperature 48 ◦C, coincident wet-bulb 26 ◦C and 18.9 ◦C (daily range). Solar insolation varies according to the time of year, especially from April to October. The house's peak load occurs in August at 4 p.m., where the maximum outside temperature is about 49 ◦C. This value should be adopted for design purposes. Figure 3 illustrates the design temperature profiles for August; the maximum total cooling load according to CARRIER software is 25 kW was in August. Figure 4 shows the percentage of the various peak cooling load components.

**Figure 3.** Design temperature profiles for August.
