Solar air con??

[Dot]

Anyone have thoughts on this type of air con???
Saw it on evilbay...

SOLAR AIR-CONDITIONER - Wall Mounted Single Head Hybrid Thermal Split - 3.5KV
AU $429.00

[T1 Terry]

From this ebay listing

How a SolAir World

Solar Thermal Hybrid Air Conditioner Works



Many people when looking at purchasing an air conditioner traditionally come across two different types of technology – Conventional and Inverter. But now there is a third player in the market, Solar Thermal Hybrid. And why is Solar Thermal Hybrid Air Conditioning even better?

The Next Generation Solar Thermal Hybrid Air Conditioners take the improvements made by inverter technology to the next level. By capturing thermal (ambient) energy, the amount of work the condenser does is reduced under full load and significantly extends the time thecompressor is cycled off.

But how do Solar Thermal Hybrid Air Conditioners do this?

They absorb thermal solar energy by using a thermal collector with copper heat conducting inner coils. This then uses the stored energy in the solar collector to continue the refrigeration cycle while the compressor is off utilising a larger stored amount of refrigerant liquid in the condenser.

The collector, compressor and the condenser have been designed to work in tandem to allow a smaller compressor to be used. The smaller compressor consumesless electricity and combined with the solar collector, SolAir World’s air conditioners optimise energy savings and reduce running costs.

Simply put, the hotter it gets, the more energy is collected in the thermal hybrid collector, the more efficient the system becomes.

The Original Thermal Boosted Air Conditioners

SolAir World is an established International Company delivering product and service throughout Asia, Australia, India, the Middle East and beyond.

A new technological breakthrough, using thermal energy, when sized and installed correctly makes SolAir World air conditioning up to 30 – 70%* more energy efficient at an affordable price.

After seven years of research, hybrid thermal boosted air conditioning systems are now available at an affordable price and systems can pay for themselves within a very short period of time.

With comparable installation costs to a conventional system, SolAir World air conditioning will become the preferred option globally and is positioned to become the preferred option for major builders and developers as pressure increases to go “green”
• Saving you up to 30-70%* in energy usage…..
• Quieter than traditional system

*Up to 70% on power usage can be achieved during the low frequency (off cycle) If installed and sized correctly and once roomtemperature has been reached based (Duel head units) Test results are based on third party testing and actual installations.

Note: Must be Installed by Qualified, Licensed Air-conditioner Installer

It doesn't mention the free bottle of snake oil if you order now
This is a very rough and mud map attempt at explaining how compressor type cooling happens. The whole principle of compressor type air conditioning involves the gas being compressed to a high pressure, then cooled through the condenser to change state from a gas to a liquid but still under the same pressure, this change of state requires heat energy to be released. The thermal expansion valve (also known as a TX valve) controls the rate of flow of this liquid into the evaporator and into a lower pressure section of the system, the TX valve separates the 2 halves, the liquid desperately needs to return to its natural state as a gas at any temp above its boiling point at this reduced pressure, so it absorbs as much heat from the air flowing through the evaporator as it can get until the air cools and therefore the evaporator cools to the boiling point of the gas, by then the TX valve would have closed so no more liquid could flow in so the change of state would continue to occur. The liquid has now returned to a gas and is drawn into the compressor. The compressor creates the difference between the high pressure side and the low pressure side.
Can anyone see any where within this circuit that more added heat energy would reduce the energy required to make it operate? I'd love to hear how this is achieved because I love to learn new stuff. This is a compressor refrigerant system, not a 3 way fridge type cooling system known as absorption cooling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absorption_refrigerator and is an extremely inefficient cooling method, even more so compared to inverter technology compressor systems using HC (hydrocarbon) refrigerate

T1 Terry

[Dot]

Now that tells me not to even go near it

[Jon and Kay]

Looks great to me
Seems to be an Inverter split system with an input direct from solar (controller within unit)
Downside.....solar is dedicated to aircon unit.
Best just buy an inverter split system, and hook it up to an 12/240v inverter that can also supply other 240v demand.
That said, this is a cheap system and could be installed like any other split system ignoring the direct solar input.

[Chuck]

[T1 Terry]

Looks great to me
Seems to be an Inverter split system with an input direct from solar (controller within unit)
Downside.....solar is dedicated to aircon unit.
Best just buy an inverter split system, and hook it up to an 12/240v inverter that can also supply other 240v demand.
That said, this is a cheap system and could be installed like any other split system ignoring the direct solar input.

I guess you mean that they are directly feeding solar voltaic energy into the split system inverter, that does no seem to be the case Jon

They absorb thermal solar energy by using a thermal collector with copper heat conducting inner coils. This then uses the stored energy in the solar collector to continue the refrigeration cycle while the compressor is off utilising a larger stored amount of refrigerant liquid in the condenser

To me that says they further heat the gases after the compressor has shut down, how that helps has me beat

T1 Terry

[Jon and Kay]

More info here http://solairworld.com/solar-air-conditioners#wmstac Terry
They seem to offer a complete range, including cassettes.