What is a Solar Air Conditioner

Solar Air Conditioner or Solar AC refers to an Air Conditioner where the energy for the air conditioning is dervided from solar energy.There are 3 types of Solar Air Conditioning namely passive solar AC,solar thermal and PV Solar Air conditioning.Solar Air Conditioners though a niche area are expected to grow strongly in the future in hot areas like India where Air Conditioning is consuming huge amounts of energy and where there is sufficient sun light to generate big amounts of solar energy as well.

The principle used in a Solar AC is the same that is used on Solar Water Heating.But the costs of a Solar Air Conditioner is much greater because it require cooling instead of heating.While Solar Water Heaters is economical and cheap,Solar ACs are quite expensive.Solar Air Conditioners are gaining traction in China where there a number of suppliers and the costs are much cheaper.While Solar Thermal Technology is mainly used in industrial air conditioning,with decreasing prices of solar panels PV Solar Air Conditioners should become the more common technology.

Solar Air Conditioner Types

1) Passive Solar Air Conditioning

In this type of cooling the design of buildings is done in such a way that it  slows the rate of heat into a building in the summer, and improving the removal of unwanted heat. It involves a good understanding of the mechanisms of heat transfer.Passive solar cooling is much easier to achieve in new construction than by adapting existing buildings.

2) Solar closed-loop absorption and adsorption Air Conditioning

Active solar cooling uses Solar Thermal Collectors to provide thermal energy to drive thermally driven chillers .Solar thermal Energy heats the heat transfer fluid within the system. The generated heat is then used in conjunction with absorption chillers to provide a renewable source of industrial cooling.

3) Photovoltaic (PV) Air Conditioning

This is mainly used in residential air conditioning.The power generated from the solar panels is used to drive conventional compressor-based or adsorption/absorption-based systems .PV cooling’s cost effectiveness depends largely on the cooling equipment and  the efficiencies in electrical cooling methods is quite poor

What is Direct Current Solar Air Conditioners

Household Appliances mostly run on Alternating Current (AC) while Solar Power generated is Direct Current(DC).The converion from DC to AC is done through a Solar Inverter which leads to increased cost and loss in efficiency of about 15-20%.In Direct Current Solar Air Conditioners that AC is directly powered by solar energy without conversion to AC leading to power savings .

Solar Air Conditioner Manufacturers/Suppliers/Installers in India

In India,mainstream AC Suppliers don’t supply air conditioners based on solar energy.Due to the high cost and almost complete rewiring needed for the home,solar air conditioners are absent .Some industrial units are going for this solar energy based solution to reduce the electricity cost which is balooning.Also some LEED buildings and green friendly organizations are implementing solar air conditioners.There are only a couple of air conditioners suppliers that I could find in India.Like Solar Panels,Solar Air Conditioners can be imported cheaply from China and a number of Chinese suppliers of air conditioners are exporting units to India.

1) Onyx is India’s largest solar air-conditioning company making hybrid solar air conditioners for industrial clients.The company’s product are not pure solar air conditioners but use the existing solar air conditioning technology to make it more efficient using solar collectors.The same principle of using compression techniquies,evaporation and cooling using air conditioning gases are use

2) Sharada Inventions – This company is providing for industrial solutions .It haskar Solar Air-Conditioning System are currently available for large scale centralized applications, with capacities of 10 TR and above. In near future the Solar Air Conditioning System will be introduced for household applications.

3) SuryaShakti – This company is also supplying solar air conditioner for industrial units besides a host of other solar products like lights,lamps,torches,solar cells and modules.It seems to be importing most of the parts from outside India.

4) Arka Technologies – The company is also like the others providing a host of solar solutions which includes a Solar Air Conditioning System (SACS).

Cost of Solar Air Conditioner

The cost of a Solar Air Conditioner is still quite high .For Example to install a 1000 Watt Solar Air Conditioner you would need at least 2 kw solar panels system which would imply $6000 investment without considering the cost of a battery.If you included the price of storage,charge controller then the costs would be north of $10,000.While the running costs of a system would be minimal,note the high initial investment on a solar air conditioner implies that it would cost you almost 20 times the price of a normal  Ac.That is the reason that large industrial units can afford solar air conditioning because they have economies of scale besides being able to afford the big investment needed upfront.