Exergoeconomic Assessment of Solar Absorption and Absorption-Compression Hybrid Refrigeration in Building Cooling

The paper mainly deals with the match of solar refrigeration, i.e., solar/natural gas-driven absorption chiller (SNGDAC), solar vapor compression–absorption integrated refrigeration system with parallel configuration (SVCAIRSPC), and solar absorption-subcooled compression hybrid cooling system (SASCHCS), and building cooling based on the exergoeconomics. Three types of building cooling are considered: Type 1 is the single-story building, type 2 includes the two-story and three-story buildings, and type 3 is the multi-story buildings. Besides this, two Chinese cities, Guangzhou and Turpan, are taken into account as well. The product cost flow rate is employed as the primary decision variable. The result exhibits that SNGDAC is considered as a suitable solution for type 1 buildings in Turpan, owing to its negligible natural gas consumption and lowest product cost flow rate. SVCAIRSPC is more applicable for type 2 buildings in Turpan because of its higher actual cooling capacity of absorption subsystem and lower fuel and product cost flow rate. Additionally, SASCHCS shows the most extensive cost-effectiveness, namely, its exergy destruction and product cost flow rate are both the lowest when used in all types of buildings in Guangzhou or type 3 buildings in Turpan. This paper is helpful to promote the application of solar cooling.