Experimental and numerical investigation on a novel photovoltaic direct-driven ice storage air-conditioning system

In this paper, a photovoltaic direct-driven ice storage air-conditioning (PDISAC) system is proposed and performance of the system is experimentally and theoretically investigated. The proposed system is a battery or inverter less photovoltaic direct-driven system where the DC compressor is directly connected to the PV array. Through the test, it has been found that the proposed system was able to lower the test room temperature below 298.15 K, while the reference room temperature was 306.15 K. Moreover, the experimental refrigeration efficiency and solar-energy utilization efficiency were reported 1.028 and 7.1% respectively. Then, a mathematical model for the progress of ice making and cold storage is presented and verified by the experimental results. Besides, the factors such as the ambient temperature, the initial water temperature and volume in the ice storage tank, and the thickness of the ice layer surrounding the coil have been studied. The simulation results indicate that the initial heat transfer rate at the condensation side drops by 10.8% and refrigeration efficiency drops by 32.7% with the ambient temperature increasing from 298.15 K to 308.15 K. The increment of initial water temperature and initial water volume will lead to an increase in refrigerating capacity and refrigeration efficiency. •A novel PDISAC system without battery or inverter is proposed.•The system can keep the experimental room below 25 °C for two hours.•The experimental ηref_sys and ηsolar can reach 1.028 and 0.071•A mathematical model is proposed and validated using experimental data.•Ambient temperature and ice thickness have great impacts on system performance.