SOLAR AIRCONDITIONING. heard of this?

[donthinkdoo]

There is a company marketing a "Solar airconditioner" which is identical to your basic non inverter wall mounted split system except the hot gas line exits the compressor and enters what they call a "thermal collector". This thermal collector is simply a coil (no fins) inside a box with a peace of black foam sitting on top and glass covering it all. It sits in direct sunlight which is supposed to in some way help the refrigeration process. From the thermal collector the refrigerant will then travel through an enlarged condenser coil.

They are claiming this can save up to 75% on your power bill. I dont understand how the thermal collector can help at all in cooling mode, I thought the idea was to get rid of heat? could it help on heating mode?

Appreciate any thoughts on this.

[NoNickName]

It's basicly absorption/adsorption refrigeration cycle. for more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_air_conditioning

[Brian_UK]

An old topic discussed on here before, nothing conclusive resulted from it.

[donthinkdoo]

Thanks Brian, I can't find the thread though, do you have the name of it? I can see how absorbsion adsorbsion works nonickname, but not in this case, there's no water involved.

[Tesla]

Hi dontthinkdo
The pannel is basically an evaperator during heating mode where it picks up solar heat from the sun & moves that heat into the conditioned space or water heater. I have not seen them in Ausie but in NZ. obviously no good as a condenser in cooling mode. As for upto 75% savings, I think that figure is crap - it's too easy to fudge the figures on a dynamic system and pick the most perfect conditions for one calculation on the best day. Perhaps you have a link for the mentioned product?