Design Considerations for Residential Solar Heating and Cooling Systems Utilizing Evacuated Tube Solar Collectors

As solar heating systems become a commercial reality, greater efforts are now being employed to incorporate solar cooling components in order to obtain a complete solar heating and cooling system, and thus take advantage of the cost-effectiveness of year-round use of the solar equipment. The solar heating and cooling system design presented in this paper incorporates design considerations which have been obtained from previous experimental efforts utilizing evacuated tube solar collectors. These advanced collectors are capable of significantly higher efficiencies, even at the higher temperatures required for solar cooling operation. Most of the considerations presented here are based on the experience gained in the design and perfonnance of the so1ar heating and coo1ing systems for CSU So1ar Houses I through IV.