Design and Construction of Solar Power

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CHAPTER ONE 1.0 INTRODUCTION Air-conditioning is one of the major consumers of electrical energy in many parts of the world today. The demand can be expected to increase because of changing working times, increased comfort expectations and global warming. Air-conditioning systems in use are most often built around a vapour compression system driven by electricity. However, most ways of generating the electricity today, as well as the refrigerants being used in traditional vapour compression systems, have negative impact on the environment [1]. Air conditioning is the process of treating air in an internal environment to establish and maintain the required standard of temperature, humidity, cleanliness and air motion. More generally, air conditioning can refer to any form of technological cooling, heating, ventilation that modifies the condition of air and it is able to cool a building because it removes heat from the indoor air and transfers it outdoor [2]. On solar air conditioning, the system is run by both the solar power and electrical energy. This can be done through photovoltaic conversion which is the conversion of solar energy to electricity. Solar energy being an eco-friendly source of energy is more efficient and harmless than the traditional fossil fuel based energy. An average solar air conditioning can easily save up to 90% of the energy used by the conventional sources of energy [3]. The Solar Air Conditioning system is a system that utilizes the sun as a heat source to assist the energy needed to drive the cooling process of a typical air conditioning system which in turn reduces the electrical consumption required to run the compressor. During hot weathers, conventional air conditioning systems are likely to consume more power. At this weather, it is when solar air conditioning is more beneficial. The heat from the sun is what majorly runs the
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