Committee Chair

Dhamshala, Prakash R.

Committee Member

McDonald, Gary; Jones, Michael

Department

Dept. of Engineering

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

Dwindling fossil fuels coupled with changes in global climate intensified the drive to make use of renewable energy resources that have negligible impact on the environment. In this attempt, the industrial community produced various devices and systems to make use of solar energy for heating and cooling of building space as well as generate electric power. The most common components employed for collection of solar energy are the flat plate and evacuated tube collectors that produce hot water that can be employed for heating the building space. In order to cool the building, the absorption chiller is commonly employed that requires hot water at high temperatures for its operation. This thesis deals with economic analysis of solar collector and absorption cooling system to meet the building loads of a commercial building located in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Computer simulations are employed to predict the hourly building loads and performance of the flat plate and evacuated tube solar collectors using the hourly weather data. The key variables affecting the economic evaluation of such system are identified and the influence of these parameters is presented. The results of this investigation show that the flat plate solar collectors yield lower payback period compared to the evacuated tube collectors and economic incentives offered by the local and federal agencies play a major role in lowering the payback period.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

12-2012

Subject

Solar energy; Solar collectors

Keyword

Absorption cooling systems; Solar collectors

Discipline

Engineering

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

xii, 72 leaves

Language

English

Rights

https://rightsstatements.org/page/InC/1.0/?language=en

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/

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