Systems That Use Environment Friendly Refrigerants Essay

Both water and homes have been heated by passive solar energy since 1882. Passive solar energy technology can best be described as thermal windows and orientation of buildings to receive the maximum amount of sunlight during the course of a day. Active heating, which utilizes solar panels, is largely a development of the 20th century. Although heating homes is a necessity during winter months, Texas needs to develop a way to cool buildings during much of the year due to high humidity and scorching temperatures. Cooling using solar energy is possible but complex since it requires an indirect technique to extract heat. The solar cooling technology was first displayed on a large scale at Trinity University in San Antonio during 1977. Texas Tech University was the first institution to develop a moderately sized solar-electric power plant in the United States. The solar-electric power plant developed by Texas Tech replaced the diesel-fueled generators used to power the City of Crosbyton. The device used to harness solar energy and convert solar radiation into electricity has been modified for usage at the Johnson and Johnson plant in Sherman, Texas as an economical electricity generating alternative (Wilder, 2013).

Energy efficiency and renewable energy sources are some of the important features that must be integrated to existing and future buildings in order to reduce their energy consumption and emissions footprint. Energy efficient advances in lighting, Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning Systems (HVAC) constitutes some of the opportunities for improvement. Australia owns an important access to renewable energy sources through the entire extension of the country. Solar power and water heating, wind power and geothermal power are some of the technologies been implemented to reduce energy consumption and decouple from conventional sources.

Imagine sitting at home in the middle of July. Now, imagine if that day had a high temperature of over 100 degrees, and a heat index of over 115 degrees. If you are living in the United States, then you are probably imagining yourself sitting in a room with some sort of air conditioning system keeping you cool. That comfort, however, comes at a price. In 1985, it was discovered that chlorofluorocarbons (CFC’s), one of the main refrigerants used in air conditioning systems, played a substantial role in the depletion of the ozone layer (Farman, Gardiner and Shanklin). CFC’s were ultimately banned as a means of refrigeration, which ushered in the next generation of coolant types known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFC’s). Unfortunately, “systems using these HFCs, however, make a moderate contribution to global warming because of their efficiency and low emission rates.” (Sand, Fisher and Baxter, P.E.). While addressing the issue of the ozone layer, HFCs initiated a new set problems themselves, including having an increased Global Warming Potential (GWP). Despite the negative environmental impacts of the past, the use of refrigerants in home cooling systems should continue.

Solar radiation is an alternative energy source for numerous industrial and domestic applications. One of the simplest and most direct applications of this energy is the conversion of solar radiation into heat. Hence the domestic sector can lessen its impact on the environment is by the installation of solar flat collector for heating water. Conventional natural circulation flat plate solar water heaters are the most economical and large scale use of solar energy all over the world. Its thermal performance and efficiency which depends on its design parameters, thickness, type of insulation, number and type of glass covers, spacing between absorber and inner glass. Apart from these parameters its performance also depends on climatic and operational

The solar energy system is an advanced technology which converts radiants of the sun into energy. This renewable energy source can be used as electricity resources. The marketing of solar energy has been expanding in recently years; however, there is still some public misperceptions about the solar system that limits its marketing. The positive outcomes associated with solar energy provides positive environmental impacts, reduce health problems, produce a vast amount of energy, is sustainable, and the price stability outweighs the negative effects of coal, fossil fuels, natural gas and nuclear power as energy resources. Therefore, the technology of solar energy provides more benefits than disadvantages; hence, the marketing of the solar system should be promoted.

Interest in solar energy has been growing in recent years. Solar energy is abundant, clean and renewable. There are two main methods to tap solar energy, i.e. with PV cells and with solar collectors. The former converts sun light directly to electricity while the latter collects the solar thermal energy (heat) to be used for various applications. Solar collectors have been in existent for many decades. Their usages are experiencing resurgence in the recent years due to the interest in renewable energy sources. Strongly increased number of solar heating plants have been built and are under construction throughout the world. The solar collectors used in the solar heating plants are flat plate solar collectors and often the volume flow rate through the collector field is varying. The integration of solar thermal systems into buildings to meet energy requirements of buildings (for domestic hot water, space heating, air-conditioning and lighting) is supported by many researchers in different parts of world. Many types of solar collectors are commercially available; they differ in design and performance and, of course, in price. They have to meet different demands in operation, configuration and meteorological conditions.

The vogue of these system is based on the fact that relatively simple systems are involved and solar water heating systems are generally viable. This category of solar systems belongs to the low-temperature heat applications. The world’s commercial low-temperature heat consumption is estimated to be about 10 EJ per year for hot water production, equivalent to 6 trillion m2 of collector area . In 2005, about 140 million m2 of solar thermal collector area were in operation around the world, which is only 2.3% of the potential . A solar water heater is a combination of a solar collector array, an energy transfer system, and a storage tank. The main part of a solar water heater is the solar collector array, which absorbs solar radiation and converts it to heat. This heat is then absorbed by a heat transfer fluid (water, non-freezing liquid, or air) that passes through the collector. This heat can then be stored or used directly. Because it is understood that portions of the solar energy system are exposed to weather conditions, they must be protected from freezing and overheating caused by high insolation levels during periods of low energy demand.

The title of the article is ‘Potential of Utilizing Solar Cooling in the University of Jordan’; this article is published in ‘Energy Conversion and Management’ journal in 2013. This article is written by collaboration between many researchers and professors in two universities in Jordan; The University of Jordan and Al-Zaytoonah Privet University of Jordan. This article available online from SienceDirect search engine. The authors wrote this article to investigate the ability of utilizing the solar energy in cooling purposes in order to ameliorate the air quality inside the building.

The exergy analysis was carried out on each component separately. Exergy accounts for individual process

The International Energy Agency (IEA) is focused “solar assisted air conditioning of buildings” in their task 25. The solar assisted air conditioning is very favorable technology to meet the demand for residential application. Later on, IEA task 38 is focused on “solar air conditioning and refrigeration”. In which the global research has started to working in the small capacity of absorption machine. The important milestone in the research of absorption system is micro-CHP (Combined Heat and Power), and it can be helpful to provide hot water and electricity for the residential building. The available capacity range of absorption machine from 40 to 300 kW is shown in Table 1.7. The increasing global market due increasing the small size building cooling demand, there is an emerging research need to operate the absorption system below 40 kW. France, China, Japan, Spain, Germany, India, United States and Mexico are leading countries in absorption system manufacturing. Other than above manufacturer is shown in Table 1.7, Voltas, Trane, Blue Star, Carrier, Robur, Kirloskar Pneumatic and Sonnenklima are also contributing in the global market of absorption machine. The total share of manufacturer against installed capacity of absorption machine is shown in Figure 1.5.

Solar heating and cooling has been difficult to assess due to the difficulty and methodology of information gathering. It is, however, estimated that this industry has employed 0.5 million people of which about 70% were in China. Since the data availability for solar heating, small hydro and geothermal is relatively low there has been potential for underestimation of jobs.

Thermal energy storage (TES) system store excess thermal energy with different applications and materials and release it for later use. [1] For instance, TES systems is an available means to balanced energy demand between day time peak hours and night time lower usage of energy. Specially, with the applications such like solar collectors, thermal energy storage system can be used to collect summer heat and storage for winter space heating; and summer space cooling like wise. [2] Similar with other energy storage systems, TES systems provide a possibility to overcome the mismatch between energy generated and usage, which is an important environmental-friendly approach to solve the problems of present energy usage and carbon dioxide emissions. [3] Fig. 1 below shows about areas of research in thermal storage systems.

This chapter includes history of Solar Water Heating and the technical analysis of the latest technology in Solar Water Heating systems. The analysis of the latest technology involves all aspects of Alternative Solar Water Heating systems design. Low cost alternative water heating system for the train coach, direct versus indirect systems, components and materials used was investigated.

The energy content of solar radiation can be used as light, heat and electricity. This diversity means that solar power is an option different power systems important food worldwide. In fact, interest in solar power systems has been increasing in recent years worldwide. This interest to several factors, such as environmental awareness, effort should be to minimize the dependence on non -renewable fossil fuels countries and international agreements that require the reduction of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere of the earth. Heat storage technologies, systems and applications are studied in the field of solar energy. One way to collect and store solar energy by using solar ponds can be used to provide thermal energy for various applications, such as process and space heating, water desalination, refrigeration, drying and power generation. Thermal energy storage has always been the most important energy storage option. Solar ponds are a classic application of thermal energy storage and efficiency essentially depends on the storage capacity of the fluid, Thermo physical properties of pond conditions and surroundings. Recently, attention has been paid to friendly sources to the environment, sustainable energy, such as solar energy. In this respect, solar ponds seem to be a potential for the application method. In this respect, solar ponds seem to be a potential for the application method.

There has been a development in the world 's population and also an increment in energy needs in the most recent years. Moreover, due to the small quantify of fossil fuel, as well as in view of its non-renewable, more consideration must be paid to alternative energy sources, especially in residential usage, since these accounts for the majority of energy utilization. Besides, the issue of energy expenditures for heating and cooling is significant at the present time owing to rising in energy costs and CO2 punishments [1].