This study presents experimental results on Photovoltaic-thermal (PVT) solar systems, the commercial photovoltaic (PV) panels used as solar absorbers in PVT collectors, which are amorphous and multi-crystalline silicon. Testing was done with outdoor experiments in the climate of Bangkok corresponding to energy consumption behavior of medium size Thai families. The experimental results show that the thermal recovery of amorphous silicon PVT collector is almost the same as that of multi-crystalline silicon PVT collectors while electricity generation of multi crystalline silicon PVT is 1.2 times as much as that of amorphous silicon PVT. The maximum of heat gain from the PVT systems were obtained in March in summer. It was found that PVT collectors of unit area annually produced 1.1 × 10³ kWh/m² .year of heat and 55–83 kWh/m².year of electricity, respectively. The results show that annual average solar factor of hot water supply is 0.45 for unit collector area. Economical evaluation based on energy costs in Thailand was conducted, which estimated the payback time would be 7 and 14 years for a-Si PVT and mc-Si PV, respectively.

A numerical investigation of the double-effect adsorption refrigeration cycle is examined in this manuscript. The proposed cycle is based on the cascading adsorption cycle, where condensation heat that is produced in the top cycle is utilized as the driving heat source for the bottom cycle. The results show that the double-effect cycle produces a higher coefficient of performance (COP) as compared to that of the conventional single-stage cycle for driving temperatures between 100 °C and 150 °C in which the average cycle chilled water temperature is fixed at 9 °C. Moreover, the COP of the double-effect cycle is more than twice that of the single-stage cycle when the temperature reaches 130 °C. It is also observed that the adsorbent mass ratio of the high temperature cycle (HTC) to the low temperature cycle (LTC) affects the performance of the double-effect adsorption refrigeration cycle.

This paper presents the performance of an advanced cascading adsorption cycle that utilizes a driven heat source temperature between 90–130 ºC. The cycle consists of four beds that contain silica gel as an adsorber fill. Two of the beds work in a single stage cycle that is driven by an external heat source, while the other two beds work in a mass recovery cycle that is driven by waste heat of sensible and adsorption heat of the high temperature cycle. The performances, in terms of the coefficient of performance (COP) and the specific cooling power (SCP), are compared with conventional cascading-without-mass-recovery and single-stage cycles. The paper also presents the effect of the adsorbent mass on performance. The results show that the proposed cycle with mass recovery produces as high of a COP as the COP that is produced by the conventional cascading cycle. However, it produces a lower SCP than that of the single-stage cycle.

Simulation study of a solar adsorption refrigeration system using a wing type compound parabolic concentrator (CPC) is presented. The system consists of the wing type collector set at optimum angles, adsorption bed, a condenser and a refrigerator. The wing type collector captures the solar energy efficiently in the morning and afternoon and provides the effective temperature for a longer period of time compared to that achieved by a linear collector. The objectives of the study were to evaluate the system behavior, the effect of wing length, and to compare the performance of the systems with wing type and linear CPCs. A detailed dynamic simulation model was developed based on mass and energy balance equations. The simulation results show that the system performance with wing type CPC increases by up to 6% in the summer and up to 2% in the winter, compared to the performance with a linear CPC having same collector length. The ice production also increases up to 13% in the summer with the wing type CPC. This shows that the wing type CPC is helpful to increase the performance of the system compared to the linear CPC with the same collector length and without the need for tracking.

The performance of an advanced three-bed adsorption chiller with a mass recovery cycle has been experimentally investigated in the present study. The temperature and pressure of various components of the chiller were monitored to observe the dynamic behaviour of the chiller. The performances in terms of the coefficient of performance (COP) and specific cooling power (SCP) were compared with a conventional single stage. The results show that the proposed cycle produces COP and SCP values superior to those of the conventional single stage cycle for heat source temperature below 75 °C.