SUMMARY

In last years the international market of air conditioning pointed out a growing interest for solar cooling. This kind of interest was encouraged by the introduction of small size absorption chillers suitable for residential applications. The aim of this work consists of a comparative evaluation of these systems to assess their respective potentialities. Such comparison allows to point out qualities and limits of each system, giving some indications to anyone who would like to enter the solar cooling market. Finally, even though recent publications presented some of these combined systems (absorption chiller – solar panels) as already operating, the paper underlines how important technical aspects are yet unsolved. Therefore at the Industrial Engineering Department laboratories a research project was developed, aimed to investigate the behaviour of a solar field absorption machine