Yeung et al. [I9921 studied the feasibility of utilising solar powered for comfort cooling in Hong Kong. The
designed system consisted of a flat-plate collector array with a surface area of 38.2 m’, a 4.7-kW nominal
cooling capacity LiBr-HI0 absorption chiller, an electrical auxiliary heater. It had an annual system
efficiency of 7.8% and an average solar fraction of 55%. The collector efficiency of 37.5% was achieved.
Alkhamis and Sherif [1997] too reported a feasibility study of a solar powered heating/cooling for a
swimming pool. Their system utilised an absorption chiller and a cooling tower to meet the facilities and
locker room load. The absorption chiller utilised hot mater to regenerate the LiBr solution. Simulation
results indicated that a combination of a double glazed collector area of 600-4800 m’ and a storage tank
results in a 2537% reduction in the consumption of gas natural. In their analysis, a flat plate collector was
selected over a solar cover, or a combination of both, since the pool was considered to be in constant use
from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. All references to solar-assisted system cost, or conventional system costs, refer
to the cost increment above the common costs. They demonstrated that the average yearly performance of
the simulated system was more sensitive to the collector area than to the storage volume within ranges
reported. This is not inconsistent with the acceptable practice of assuming that the collector area is the
dominant design parameter, while the storage volume size is mostly a cost-related parameter. Simulation
results also indicated that a collector area approximately half that of the pool, resulted in a 25% solar
fraction. Optimisation of the life-cycle savings of the proposed solar-assisted over its useful life is more
sensitive to the fuel prices than the fuel inflation rate for a given set of economics parameters. In addition,
the selection of optimum collector areas is not critical. With the economic factors, the solar-assisted
heating/cooling system using flat collectors in a tropical environment is not economical over a life period of
ten years.