thermal comfort

photovoltaic thermal

solar power

performance ratio

water heating

Energy Conversion and Management

Current air conditioning systems have become consistently energy-efficient, but usually, these systems represent the largest electricity consumer in residential, commercial and industrial buildings. The variability in electricity costs also imposes uncertainties in the future operational costs of air conditioning installations. This study presents an economic analysis considering technical aspects related to the integrated use of solar photovoltaic, as a complementary energy source, and air conditioning systems connected to the utility grid. Two different systems, variable refrigerant flow and chillers, were analyzed in two cities in Brazil, Recife and São Paulo, with varying levels of irradiation and temperature. A mathematical model to evaluate the economic benefits of the integrated use of these systems was implemented considering conditionals and functional aspects of the locations, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere. A sensitivity analysis using Sobol’s method to determinate the most sensitive parameters affecting the economic results of the proposed system has been carried out. The results reveal high economic viability for all the systems studied and their most critical variables, namely energy price, energy price annual adjustment, photovoltaic cost and solar panel efficiency. Finally, the findings show that the implementation of air conditioning systems with solar photovoltaic energy could assure high internal rate of return for both cities, with average values around 28% for Recife and 22% for São Paulo, and the variable refrigerant flow system simulations resulted in better indexes when compared to chiller indexes.

An economic analysis of the integration between air-conditioning and solar photovoltaic systems