EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF THERMAL STORAGE TANK CONFIGURATION IN A SOLAR COOLING INSTALLATION WITH AN ABSORPTION CHILLER.

There are two basic configurations of a thermal storage tank in a solar cooling facility. These are Stratification and Well-mixed configuration. Experimental results show that for solar cooling applications, having a well-mixed temperature in the thermal storage tank produce more daily cooling energy than in a stratified one, although the solar field efficiency is lower. This gives the facility more autonomy of operation in the afternoon, when the sun goes down and radiation is not enough for the application and there is still a considerably amount of thermal load in Spanish dwellings. Effects on the facility produced by Well-mixed configuration are: efficiency reduction on the solar collector’s field, 0,27, higher daily COP’s (Coefficient Of Performance of chiller), 0,33, and extended solar cooling time of about two hours more than in stratified configuration. Using the experimental data, a well mixed storage tank model is tunned. Then is applied as a tool for the accurate determination of optimal equivalent storage capability