In order to reduce the investment and operation cost of distributed PV energy system, ice storage technology was introduced to substitute batteries for solar energy storage. Firstly, the ice storage air conditioning system (ISACS) driven by distributed photovoltaic energy system (DPES) was proposed and the feasibility studies have been investigated in this paper. And then, the theoretical model has been established and experimental work has been done to analyze the energy coupling and transferring characteristics in light-electricity-cold conversion process. In addition, the structure optimization analysis was investigated. Results revealed that energy losses were high in ice making process of ice slide maker with only 17.38% energy utilization efficiency and the energy efficiency and exergy efficiency of ISACS driven by DPES were 5.44% and 67.30%, respectively. So the immersed evaporator and cointegrated exchanger were adopted for higher energy utilization efficiency and better financial rewards in structure optimization. The COP and exergy efficiency of ice maker can be increased to 1.48 and 81.24%, respectively, after optimization and the energy utilization efficiency of ISACS driven by DPES could be improved 2.88 times. Moreover, ISACS has the out-of-the-box function of ordinary air conditioning system. In conclusion, ISACS driven by DPES will have good application prospects in tropical regions without power grid.
Experimental investigation of static ice refrigeration air conditioning system driven by distributed photovoltaic energy system
