Solar-assisted vapor compression/absorption cascaded air-conditioning systems

This article describes a hybrid air-conditioning system consisting of a conventional R-22 vapor compression refrigeration system cascaded with a solar-operated, ammonia-water, vapour absorption system. The condenser of the R-22 system is cooled by the evaporator of the the ammonia system. This facilitates operation of the R-22 system at a low condensing temperature and pressure. This is found to yield considerable savings in electrical energy consumption by the compression system.