Comparison study of solar cooling technologies for an institutional building in subtropical Queensland, Australia

In the last few years, due to soaring fuel prices and gas emissions, buildings designers have suggested new cooling technologies that can compete with conventional cooling technologies. The interest in solar assisted cooling technologies stems from the fact that they are sustainable and environmentally friendly compared to conventional cooling systems. The present paper investigates and compares the performance of two types of solar cooling: solar absorption cooling system and solar desiccant cooling system, for an institutional building located in the state of Queensland, Australia. A simulation model of the building has been developed for the evaluation of cooling load and primary energy usage with the application of the solar cooling systems. The evaluation of these systems has been conducted taking into account the solar fraction, the coefficient of performance and the primary energy savings. The building cooling load profile and the technologies component were modelled using TRNSYS16 in Subtropical Central Queensland typical meteorological year. Results showed that by installing a 50 m2 of solar collectors, the desiccant system will achieve a maximum of 0.89 and 0.82 of solar fraction in the month of December and January in Gladstone and Rockhampton sites respectively, while the absorption system will achieve a 0.81 and 0.75 of solar fraction for the same time period in Gladstone and Rockhampton sites respectively.