The pilot tests of the single stage absorption water chiller
installed at the CHP plant in the city of Poznan allowed
for the derivation of the average COPsr coefficient which
represents the device’s thermodynamic quality. The cooling
load ratio of the unit was varying between 10% and 55%
during the experimental investigation. Below the 30% of
cooling load ratio operational stability of the device was
limited, partly due to the instability of the steam supply
temperature and the instability of cooling water temperature.
Nevertheless, the derived average value of the COPsr
coefficient was close to the catalogue data supplied by the
unit manufacturer and reached the value of 0.69.
On the basis of the derived average value of COPsr coefficient
economic calculations were made and focused on the
determination of the cooling energy unit price. The calculated
cooling energy unit price was compared with the reference
value of the cooling energy unit price found for the
electricity-powered compressor water chiller. It was found
that the profitability of the absorption water chiller is
reached while the heat price (referred to steam price) is
below 0.005 $/kWh, thus it is much lower then the heat
unit market price – 0.038 $/kWh. Nonetheless, during the
cooling season the heat produced in the CHP plant can
be usually treated as waste heat – referring to the condensing
mode of the CHP plant operation