How a Hybrid Solar Air Conditioner Works

Hybrid Solar Air Conditioning, also known as Solar Assisted Air Conditioning, is a revolutionary system that uses the power of solar energy to assist a high efficiency compressor to reduce energy use dramatically. Like a traditional central air conditioning system, there is a compressor and an air handler, but added is a solar thermal collector mounted on the roof.

The Hybrid Solar Air Conditioning system takes a high efficiency 16 SEER compressor adapted to circulate refrigerant to the solar collector. The solar collector, made of evacuated glass tubes, superheats the refrigerant, making the job of the compressor easier, and thereby reducing energy use.

A conventional air conditioning system uses the compressor (powered by electricity) to pressurize and heat the refrigerant gas up to about 170 degrees.  It then travels into the outside condensing coils where it changes from a gas into a saturated gas (partial liquid).  Typically this occurs in the final third of the condensing coil.  From there the saturated gas passes through an expansion devise that allows the refrigerant to become a gas again.  Once this happens it can absorb heat from the air passing through the inside coil of the air conditioner.  From there the refrigerant goes back to the compressor where it starts the whole cycle again.

A hybrid solar air conditioning system uses the same basic equipment as a conventional system with a specialized solar collector that is placed between the compressor and the condensing coils.  The primary task of the compressor is to pressurize and heat the refrigerant.  The hotter it gets the better.  A hybrid solar  air conditioning system uses a highly efficient vacuum tube collector filled with an organic liquid product.  The collector heats the organic substance to over 350 degrees using the FREE power of the sun to superheat the refrigerant above what the compressor would be able to heat it with electricity.  The resulting efficiency derived from the solar collector allows for the refrigerant to work more efficiently with no additional moving parts or motors. This increases the ability of the gas to change back into a liquid much quicker and dramatically reduces the energy requirement of the compressor.  The gas now condenses back into saturated gas in the first third of the condensing coil not the final third. Therefore by the time the refrigerant reaches the expansion devise in the inside coil, it is already almost a liquid.  This allows the near liquid refrigerant to be more efficient at absorbing heat, making it 5-6 degrees cooler in the inside coil, delivering colder, drier air to the building.