Experimental analysis of photovoltaic-thermal (PV/T) module assisted vapor compression refrigeration system

Energy is gaining more and more importance in human life day by day. Most of the world's energy demands are met by fossil fuels. Due to the increase in the prices of fossil fuels, increasing demand, being finite and the damage they cause to the environment, researchers have started to search for alternative energy sources. Because of the investigations, a tendency towards renewable energy sources as alternative energy has started. The interest in solar energy is increasing day by day because it is clean and endless among renewable energy sources. In recent years, solar energy has been used alone as well as integrated into refrigeration and heating systems and used as a combined system. In addition, refrigeration systems have an important place in energy consumption. Because almost one third of global energy consumption is caused by refrigeration, heating, and air conditioning systems. For this reason, an improvement in the performance of refrigeration systems will significantly reduce energy consumption. There are many studies on this subject. In addition, in recent years, the analysis of the change in performance by combining systems with other systems rather than individually is becoming more and more popular day by day. Today, combined systems with solar energy support are used in refrigeration and heat pump systems. In this study, the performance of Photovoltaic/Thermal module assisted vapor compression refrigeration system (PV/T-VCRS) is analyzed. As a result of the experiments, the module surface temperatures of PV, PV/T and PV/T-VCRS (25 ℃, 30 ℃, and 35 ℃) were determined as 68.39 ℃, 42.43 ℃, 47.58 ℃, 49.8 ℃, and 52 ℃, respectively. The electrical efficiencies of PV, PV/T, and PV/T-VCRS (25 ℃, 30 ℃, and 35 ℃) were calculated as 15.52%, 16.32%, 16.15%, 16.05%, and 15.94%, respectively. The COP values for VCRS and PV/T-VCRS (25 ℃, 30 ℃ and 35 ℃) were obtained as 3.82, 3.66, 3.4, and 3.17, respectively. The total exergy destruction for VCRS and PV/T-VCRS (25 ℃, 30 ℃, and 35 ℃) were obtained as 370 W, 387 W, 394 W, and 398 W, respectively. The exergy efficiencies for VCRS and PV/T-VCRS (25 ℃, 30 ℃, and 35 ℃) were calculated as 34.33%, 32.42%, 30.06%, and 28.67%, respectively. The energy cost of PV/T-BSSS (25 °C, 30 °C, and 35 °C) is calculated as 0.359 $/kWh, 0.443 $/kWh, and 0.508 $/kWh, respectively. In addition, as a result of the thermoeconomic analysis, the R_ex value was calculated as 0.647 kWh/$, 0.686 kWh/$, and 0.692 kWh/$ at FV/T-BSSS (25 °C, 30 °C, and 35 °C), respectively. It was obtained as 15.17 ¢/h, 16.52 ¢/h, and 17.6 ¢/h for FV/T-BSSS (25 ℃, 30 ℃, and 35 ℃). The amounts of hot water obtained in FV/T-BSSS (25 ℃, 30 ℃, and 35 ℃) are 475 L, 300 L, and 210 L, respectively.