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journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrefrig

Performance study of solar-assisted air-conditioning system

provided with storage tanks using artificial neural networks
S. Rosiek, F.J. Batlles*
Dpto. Fsica Aplicada, Universidad de Almera, Ctra. Sacramento s/n, La Canada de San Urbano, 04120 Almera, Spain

article info

abstract

Article history:

This study presents the performance of solar-assisted air-conditioning system provided

Received 3 December 2009

with two storage tanks installed in the Solar Energy Research Center (CIESOL) building. The

Received in revised form

system consists mainly of solar collectors array, a hot-water driven absorption chiller,

29 March 2011

a cooling tower, two hot storage tanks, an auxiliary heater as well as two cold storage

Accepted 2 May 2011

tanks. The hot storage tank circuit was further investigated. In first step, we have carried

Available online 13 May 2011

out the study about the necessity of the integration of hot water storage tanks to solar
system. Subsequently, the unique Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model with the lowest

Keywords:

number of input variables has been proposed with the main purpose to predict the coef-

Thermal storage

ficient of performance and the cooling capacity of the absorption chiller. The configuration

Absorption system

5-9-2 (5 inputs, 9 hidden and 2 output neurons) was found to be the optimal topology. The

Neural network

results demonstrate proper ANNs predictions with a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) of less
than 0.70% and practically null deviation, which can be considered very satisfactory.
2011 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.

Etude sur la performance dun syste`me de conditionnement

dair fonctionnant en partie grace a` lenergie solaire et muni
de bacs daccumulation employant des reseaux neuronaux
artificiels
Mots cles : accumulation thermique ; syste`me a` absorption ; reseau neuronal

1.

Introduction

Solar air conditioning is an emerging market with a huge

growth potential. Peak cooling demand in summer is associated with high availability of solar radiation, which offers an
excellent opportunity to exploit solar energy with heat-driven

cooling machines. For low power cooling systems, commercial technologies are available on a limited basis. However,
a strong attention is put on research on other applications
including photovoltaic-operated refrigeration cycles and solar
mechanical refrigeration (Balaras et al., 2006). Recently
research has been devoted to improving the main

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 34 950 015914; fax: 34 950 015477.

E-mail address: fbatlles@ual.es (F.J. Batlles).
0140-7007/$ e see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2011.05.003

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 4 4 6 e1 4 5 4

Teac

Nomenclature
Cp
I
Tamb
Tout

mc

mg
Teg
Tlg

me
Tee
Tle

mac

1

1

specific heat capacity of water [4.18 Kj kg K ]

incident radiation intensity [Wm2]
ambient air temperature [ C]
leaving flat-plate collectors temperature [ C]
collectors mass flow rate [m3 h1]
generators mass flow rate [m3 h1]
entering generators temperature [ C]
leaving generators temperature [ C]
evaporators mass flow rate [m3 h1]
entering evaporators temperature [ C]
leaving evaporators temperature [ C]
absorbers and condensers mass flow rate
[m3 h1]

components of the solar absorption cooling system, such as

the solar collector, the absorption chiller, and hot water
storage tank.
The main purpose of storage in a solar-assisted air-conditioning system is to overcome mismatches between solar
gains and cooling loads. The most common application is the
integration of a hot water buffer tank in the heating cycle of
the thermally driven cooling equipment. The excess solar heat
can be stored in the heat storage unit and is available if the
solar heat is not sufficient and it serves as a buffer reservoir to
have nearly constant heat input. Kreider and Kreith (1981)
have reported that the system can be operated more
efficiently by using two hot storage units as a heat reservoir,
set at two different temperature ranges (Li and Sumathy,
2000, 2001; Henning, 2004).
Artificial Neural Networks have been increasingly used in
recent years to predict or to improve nonlinear system
performance in HVAC&R (Sencan et al., 2006; Wong et al.,
2010). The ability to learn is one of the outstanding characteristics on an ANN. ANNs can model multiple parameters
simultaneously for nonlinear systems and are now widely
used for predictive control, such as solar radiation (Lopez
et al., 2001, 2005; Bosch et al., 2008), energy use prediction,
energy optimization (Chow et al., 2002), data trending, and
optimum start and stop (Wang, 2001; Chang, 2007).
There had been several studies on the performance
prediction of the absorption chiller system (Lazzarin et al.,
1993; Martnez and Pinazo, 2002; Syed et al., 2005; Asdrubali
and Grignaffini, 2005; Helm et al., 2009), however very little
work has been conducted for the total solar cooling systems
based on absorption chiller and provided with hot water
storage tanks. Hence the main purpose of this study was to
analyze the essential importance of the hot water tank integration and to determine ANN model able to estimate the
coefficient of performance and cooling capacity for usage in
control system. The final goal of the solar-assisted air-conditioning system is to operate with stable and high values of the
coefficient of performance, and to maximize the use of solar
thermal energy. To meet this objective we need to know in
which conditions our systems works more efficiently, at the
same time covering building necessity. Until now the control
system has been utilized only by determining the information
about temperatures found in the collectors field, storage tanks

Tlac
T1
T2
S2
COP

Q cool

Q ev

Q gen

1447

entering absorbers and condensers temperature

[ C]
leaving absorbers and condensers temperature
[ C]
first storage tanks average temperature [ C]
second storage tanks average temperature [ C]
temperature in the upper part of the second
storage tank [ C]
coefficient of performance
cooling capacity [kW]
the evaporator load [kW]
the heat delivered to generator [kW]

and the load fraction in the building with any consideration

about the systems optimal operation points. This is the
fundamental difference between systems with and without
application of ANN models. On the other hand we intend to
estimate the cooling capacity in order to operate with cold
water storage tanks. Using this kind of tanks we are able to
store the excess cooling capacity of the chiller and use it when
the cooling production does not cover the building load (clouds
alternation or mismatches between solar gains and building
loads). This system could permit the absorption chiller to be
operated even when there is no demand, increasing the use of
solar energy, preventing the sudden start/stop (on/off cycles) of
the chiller due to low cooling demand and allowing to realize
the earlier chiller start-up, so we need to predict values of the
cooling capacity to choose the best way of system control. In
this way we maximize the use of solar thermal energy, avoiding the CO2 emissions to the atmosphere. In this work we
determined a methodology, which could be easily adapted to
other systems with the main goal to improve the design of
solar-assisted systems bearing in mind number of measurements and operation points as well the maximisation of the
solar thermal energy. Our study allows also reducing the
monitoring cost, since we are able to avoid a lot of redundant
measurements points through the selection of the ANNs input
parameters. In the first phase of the present work we present
the behaviour of the system without hot water storage tanks.
To achieve this goal the study about the solar system with no
hot water storage tanks integration was presented. Secondly,
the solar-driven hot water storage tanks applied to above
mentioned system were investigated more profoundly. Finally,
we determine an artificial neural network with the main scope
to predict the coefficient of performance and the cooling
capacity of the absorption chiller fed by water provided only
from hot water storage tanks.

2.
Description of solar-assisted airconditioning system
In this study, we use data registered in the solar-assisted airconditioning system installed in the Ciesol building situated
on the Campus of the University of Almeria. The system
employs a flat-plate solar collectors array with a total surface

1448

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of 160 m2, the hot-water driven single-effect LiBr-H2O

absorption chiller with a rated capacity of 70 kW (Yazaki), the
cooling tower, two hot storage tanks with a capacity of 5000 l
each, an auxiliary heater and two cold storage tanks. Analysis
of the aforementioned system and its various operation
modes has been recently presented by Rosiek and Batlles
(2009). Fig. 1 presents the view of the CIESOL building with
the flat-plate solar collectors array installed on the roof and
the main system components.
In this study, we analyze the behaviour of this system
supplied with only hot water storage tanks to satisfy the cooling demand of the Ciesol building. Fig. 2 presents the general
scheme of this system operating in solar cooling mode. In the
present paper, we use measurements of global radiation,
temperatures and mass flow rates of the absorption chiller
and storage tanks acquired with a 1 min sampling period
with the main goal to analyze the behaviour of the system
and to predict coefficient of performance (COP) and cooling

capacity Q cool of the absorption chiller.
The coefficient of performance (COP) is obtained from the
following equation:


COP Q ev =Q gen me  Cp  Tee  Tle =mg  Cp  Teg  Tlg



(1)

where Q ev is the evaporator load Q cool ,Q gen is the heat deliv

ered to generator, me is the evaporators mass flow rate, Cp is
the specific heat capacity of water, Tee is the entering

evaporators temperature, Tle, is the leaving evaporators


temperature, mg is the generators mass flow, Teg is the
entering generators and Tlg is the leaving generators
temperature.

3.

Integration of the hot water storage tanks

In the following subsections we want to emphasize the

essential importance of the hot water tank integration to solarassisted air-conditioning system. To achieve this goal the
study about the solar-assisted air-conditioning system with no
hot water storage tanks integration was presented. Secondly,
the solar-driven hot water storage tanks applied to above
mentioned system were taken into deeper investigation.

3.1.

Solar cooling mode with no storage system

In this paragraph we will study deeper the solar-assisted airconditioning system driven only by solar energy with the
main aim to underline the necessity of thermal storage integration. The air-conditioning is in operation during office
hours from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m., from Monday to Friday. The basic
idea of this mode is to feed the absorption chiller with water
provided from solar collectors. The chiller has the minimum
and maximum generators inlet temperature of the order of

Fig. 1 e a) View of the CIESOL building with 160 m2 flat-plate solar collectors array, b) general view of CIESOL building-north
facade, c) the nave with the main system components, d) hot water storage tanks.

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 4 4 6 e1 4 5 4

Incident radiation
meter

Cooling
tower

Flat-plate
collectors array

x Tout
STORAGE TANKS

T1

V1 V2

Cooling water
pump P2
mac

T2

Hot water
Teac x
xTsac
Chilled water
pump
pump P3
P1
Teg
Tee
x
x
Absorption
me
V3
mg
V4
chiller
Tlg
x

Tle
x

1449

we can use some auxiliary heater for example, but the

main purpose of this project is to maximize use of solar
thermal energy, avoiding the CO2 emissions to the
atmosphere, therefore the integration of the hot water
storage tanks is essential. To underline once more the huge
importance of integration of hot water storage tanks we
attempted to show that the solar-assisted air-conditioning
system could function only 28% of its total operating time
(from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) working with no thermal storage or
auxiliary heater (cf. Fig. 4).

3.2.

Solar cooling mode with hot storage system

Cooling
load

Fig. 2 e The general scheme of the solar-assisted

air-conditioning system driven by solar energy.

70  C and 95  C, respectively and out of those values the chiller

will stop working. Once the cooling operation is selected and
the leaving flat-plate collectors temperature is greater than
the minimum start-up temperature of absorption machine
(70  C), the chiller will function automatically and remain in
operation as long as there is a demand for chilled water.
During the period when absorption chiller is driven only by
solar energy valve V1 is opened while both valves V2, V3 are
kept closed and the pump P1 circulates the hot water between
the absorption chiller and solar collectors array, avoiding
storage tanks (c.f. Fig. 2). The bypass valve V4 is cycled ON and
OFF to control flow of heat medium through the generator in
response to the chilled water temperature. When the chilled
water temperature is satisfied, the V4 is closed, the cooling
water pump P2 will stopped after 4 min and the pump P3
will circulate the chilled water through the fan-coil units.
The system will remain in this state as long as the chilled
water increases due to increasing buildings load,
meanwhile the valve V1 modifies its opening level
depending on the difference between the entering and
leaving flat-plate collectors temperature. The pump P1
circulates the hot water between the absorption chiller and
solar collectors and no excess energy can be store due to
lack of the thermal storage.
To verify the necessity of thermal storage integration the
analysis of the leaving flat-plate collectors temperature has
been carried out since the absorption chiller is driven only by
solar energy. Taking into account the minimum generators
inlet temperature we focussed our study only on the leaving
collectors temperature superior than 70  C. The experimental data was collected during the cooling period of 2007
and 2008 with 1 min sampling period. Fig. 3 presents the
leaving flat-plate collectors temperature versus the incident
radiation and collectors mass flow rate. As can be seen in
the Fig. 3 for incident radiation less than 400 [Wm2] and
collectors mass flow rate higher than 9 [m3 h1] we cannot
reach the leaving flat-plate collectors temperature higher
than 70  C (the minimum start-up temperature of
absorption machine), thus the auxiliary heat source is
needed to start the cooling process. To fulfil this condition

With the main goal to provide energy at moments when the

energy proceeding from solar collectors is insufficient, two
storage tanks were used. The use of a hot water tank between
the solar collectors field and the absorption machine has been
reported to yield higher system efficiency and extends the
daily cooling period. It also prevents cycling of the absorption
machine due to variations in solar radiation intensity (Li and
Sumathy, 2000; Syed et al., 2005).
In this paragraph we want to point out the necessity of
storage tank integration, so we will focus on those modes of
systems operation that involve thermal storage. Energy can
be charged, stored and discharged daily or weekly depending
on the control strategy. In the morning and afternoon, when
the solar water is not sufficient to cover the cooling necessity,
the system is fed by water provided from hot storage
tanks. The control system compares the temperature of the
second storage tank to the minimum start-up temperature of
absorption machine (70  C) and if this temperature is grater
the chiller is switched on. During this operation mode valves
V1 is kept closed while valves V2, V3 are opened and the pump
P1 circulates the hot water between the absorption chiller and
storage tanks, avoiding solar collectors (cf. Fig. 2). In this way
the thermal energy is removing from storage tanks. The
process of thermal storage discharging will continue as long
as the second storage tanks temperature decreases below
the minimum generators inlet temperature. During the
period when the buildings load is low (low evaporators

Fig. 3 e Leaving flat-plate temperature against collectors

mass flow rate and incident radiation intensity during the
cooling period of 2007 and 2008.

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Fig. 4 e Operation time of the solar cooling mode with no

storage tank versus the total operation time in cooling
period of 2007 and 2008.

temperatures) the control system demands low entering

generators temperature. In those moments only the amount
of solar heat necessary to cover the cooling loads is being
used and the excess solar energy is stored in two hot water
storage tanks. In this operation mode the pump P1 circulates
warmer water from solar collectors to the first tank and at
the same time the second storage tank is discharged to
supply the absorption chiller (c.f. Fig. 2). Another way of
storage tanks charging occurs when the chilled water is no
needed (weekends and lunch break 2O4 p.m.) and hot water
from solar collectors is used to load the thermal storage,
since the absorption chiller is switched off. In this mode the
pump P1 circulates the hot water between solar collectors
and storage tanks.
Fig. 5 presents the temperature in the upper part of the
second storage tank, leaving collectors temperature,
generators entering temperature, ambient temperature and
evaporators leaving temperature against time for one

experimental day (03/09/07) while the ambient temperature

reached 35  C. As we can see till 9:22 a.m. the evaporators
leaving temperature was stable and of the order of 30  C.
The solar-assisted air conditioning system was switched on
at 9:22 a.m. with the main goal to cover the cooling demand
in Ciesol building. The control system compared the
temperature of the second storage tank and the leaving
collectors to the minimum start-up temperature of the
absorption chiller. At that moment the solar hot water was
still too low and the warm water form storage tank was
used to driven the chiller. From 9:22 a.m. to 10 a.m. the
entering generators temperature presents the same profile
as the second storage tank temperature, indicating that the
absorption machine was provided with storage tanks.
During this period the chilled water gradually decreased and
reached the temperature of the order of 8  C. At the same
time the leaving collectors temperature increased sharply
due to experimental modification of V1 opening level. Even
that the collectors temperature reached the value of about
75  C which would be enough to drive the chiller, the control
system indicated the storage tanks as a heat source because
of the high value of chilled water temperature. After 10 a.m.
we can observe that the leaving evaporators temperature
remains constant almost rest of the time due to low
buildings load. From 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. only amount of solar
heat necessary to cover the cooling demand was used and
the excess solar energy was stored in two hot water storage
tanks. Between 2 and 4 p.m. (lunch break) cold water was no
needed and solar water was used to load the hot water
storage tanks and it can be seen from Fig. 5 that the second
storage tank temperature increased from 75  C to about
85  C. After 4 p.m. the chiller once again was switched on.
Once more the control system compared the temperature of
the second storage tank and the leaving collectors to the
minimum start-up temperature of the absorption chiller.
Taking into account that the buildings load was low and the
control system demanded low entering generators
temperature, the absorption chiller was supplied with hot
water from second storage tank. At the same time the first
storage tank was charged with the hot water from solar
collectors. The system operated till 6:15 p.m.

Fig. 5 e Generators entering temperature, evaporators leaving temperature, leaving collectors temperature, temperature in
the upper part of the second storage tank and ambient temperature against time (03/09/07).

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 4 4 6 e1 4 5 4

Fig. 6 presents COP, obtained by applying Eq. (1), against

entering generators temperature, leaving evaporators
temperature and time for one experimental day (16/08/07).
During this operation day we had 100% of the buildings load
and the stable entering generators temperature of about
70  C. Although the buildings load was high (high
evaporators temperatures) and the control system should
demand high entering generators temperature we set up the
optimum entering generators temperature of about 70  C
with the main goal to maximize the use of storage system.
The solar-assisted air conditioning system was switched on
at 12:33 p.m. and operated till 5:00 p.m. and during this
period the COP varied from 0.31 to 0.84 at the beginning and
at the end of the cooling process, respectively. We can also
observe that the behaviour of the COP is almost constant
during all experiment. It is mainly due to the fact that the
absorption chiller was fed by water provided from second
storage tank while the warmer water from solar collectors
was used to charge the first tank. This operation mode
stabilizes the behaviour of the COP and prevents cycling of
the absorption chiller that we can observe between
12:58O1:41 p.m. and 2:18O2:32 p.m. In those moments the
absorption chiller was provided with solar collectors and the
entering generators temperature varied due to variations in
solar radiation intensity. On other occasions we can observe
that the storage tanks have an essential importance of the
solar-assisted air-conditioning system.

4.

ANN model

4.1.

ANN model description

An artificial neural network (ANN) is massive interconnected,

parallel processing, dynamic system of interacting processing
elements that are in some aspect similar to the human brain.
The fundamental processing element is called the neuron,
which is analogous to the neural cell in human brain. The

1451

neurons are set in layers, and thus a network is formed. Inputs

representing the variables that affect the output of the
network are feeding forward to each of the neurons in the
following layers with activation depending on their weighted
sum. Finally, an output can calculated as a function of the
weighted sum of the inputs and an additional factor, the
biases. The ability to learn is one of the outstanding characteristics of an ANN. The weights of the inputs are adjusted to
produce a predicted output within specified errors. An ANN
system is characterized by its net topology, neuron activations
transfer, and learning method (Wang, 2001).
The neural network selected here is a multilayer feedforward
perceptron (MLP) with one hidden layer. A tan-sigmoid transfer
function was used as the activation function for the hidden
layer, and a linear transfer function was used for the output
layer. The LevenbergeMarquardt (LM) algorithm was applied as
the method for achieving fast optimization (Chow et al., 2002).

4.2.

ANN model development and results

To determinate the ANN solar-assisted air-conditioning

systems model provided from storage tanks, a set of 1250 data
points with a 1 min sampling period was used. Table 1
presents the input and output parameters used for training
the ANN absorption systems model. The input parameters
were monitored by data acquisition system from June 6,
2007 to September 25, 2007 and from July 14, 2008 to
September 15, 2008, and the outputs parameters were
estimated through the equation (c.f. Eq. (1)). In order to carry
out the network training, 1060 data patterns were used, and
the remaining 190 patterns were used as the test data set.
The training and testing data were normalized between
0 and 1, using (c.f. Eq. (2)):
xscaled x  xmin =xmax  xmin

(2)

where xmax and xmin are equal to the maximum and minimum
recorded values for each variable x. In order to determine the

Fig. 6 e Coefficient of performance of the absorption chiller against entering generators temperature, leaving evaporators
temperature and time (16/08/07).

1452

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Table 1 e Input and output parameters used for ANN

absorption systems model.
Input variables

Range


Entering generators temperature [ C]

Leaving generators temperature [ C]
Generators mass flow rate [m3 h1]
Entering evaporators temperature [ C]
Leaving evaporators temperature [ C]
Evaporators mass flow rate [m3 h1]
Entering absorbers and condensers temperature [ C]
Leaving absorbers and condensers temperature [ C]
Absorbers and condensers mass flow rate [m3 h1]
Incident radiation intensity [Wm2]
Leaving flat-plate collectors temperature [ C]
First storage tanks average temperature [ C]
Second storage tanks average temperature [ C]
Coefficient of performance
Cooling capacity [Kw]

64.8e90.7
38.7e84.5
7.3e16.8
8.65e30.55
3.62e36.14
9.18e10.4
24.02e41.3
24.77e43.64
0.07e45.08
31.14e818.4
19e85.42
59.24e81.49
62.87e87.45
0e0.99
0.46e79.34

Table 2 e RMSE errors of coefficient of performance and

cooling capacity obtained during selection of inputs
variables.
Input variables

Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , Teac, Tlac, mac , I, Tout, T1, T2



Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , Teac, Tlac, I, Tout, T1, T2


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , I, Tout, T1, T2

Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, I, Tout, T1, T2


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , I, Tout, T2

Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle, me , I, Tout, T1, T2



Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , Teac, Tlac, mac


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , I, Tout, T1


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , Teac, I, T2
Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle, I, Tout, T1, T2


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , Teac, Tlac
Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle, I, Tout, T1, T2


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , I, Tout


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , I, T2


Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , I, Tout, T2


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , T2


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , Teac


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me , Tlac


Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle, me
Teg, Tle, I, Tout, T1, T2
Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle, I, T2

Teg, Tlg, mg , Tee, Tle

Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle, me
Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle, T2
Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle

RMSE

[%]

COP

Qcool

1.61
1.33
1.56
2.26
1.55
3.49
2.36
2.33
1.78
3.43
1.83
3.43
2.52
2.18
12.65
2.46
1.75
2.91
4.40
25.52
4.68
4.22
3.48
3.98
4.63

1.63
1.06
0.93
2.33
1.39
1.46
1.23
2.05
1.67
2.34
1.80
2.17
1.96
1.71
2.58
1.80
1.58
2.12
3.77
24.6
3.21
3.41
1.87
2.59
3.24

ANN systems model, the neural network toolbox under the

Matlab environment was used.
When a large number of variables are eligible to be
included in a model, selecting optimal inputs becomes a critical step prior to the model development itself, since computational cost can be considerably reduced and because not all
the variables considered are always available (Bosch et al.,
2008). In this study, we attempt to predict the performance
of the absorption chiller provided from storage tanks with
the main aim of lowering the initial input parameters.
To verify the influence of the above mentioned input
parameters, we considered the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE)
as a percentage of the mean measured values. In Table 2, one
can see the statistical results of RMSE errors of coefficient of
performance and cooling capacity obtained during selection
of inputs variables for the ANN solar-assisted airconditioning systems model.
The main goal of this work is to determine the unique ANN
model with the minimal number of input patterns able to
estimate the two output variables. Through the analysis of the
results presented in the Table 2, we select the more favourable
configuration of ANN model input variables. To carry out the
network training, 1060 data patterns were used, where

the number of input variables was varied. The selection of

the input variables was started with the configuration of 13
variables, and we progressively decreased the number of
variables by taking into account their importance. Finally,
we chose entering and leaving generators temperature,
entering and leaving evaporators temperature and the
second storage tanks average temperature as the more
favourable configuration of the network inputs.
After the input and output model variables were fixed, the
next step consists of determining the network architecture
(Bosch et al., 2008). Several MLPs networks with different
numbers of hidden neurons Nh were trained. In order to

Fig. 7 e RMSE evolution vs. the increase of hidden units.

Fig. 8 e MBE evolution vs. the increase of hidden units.

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 4 4 6 e1 4 5 4

1453

Fig. 9 e ANN architecture used for the absorption chiller

system provided with two storage tanks.

assess the accuracy of the neural models we analyze the results

in meaning of the RMSE and Mean Bias Error (MBE) expressed as
a percentage of the mean measured. Figs. 7 and 8 illustrate RMSE
and MBE evaluation versus the increasing number of hidden
neurons, respectively. As can be seen for numbers of hidden
neurons higher than 9, the RMSE became almost constant,
and the maximum and minimum deviations were found 0.023
and -0.034, respectively. Finally, the architecture 5-9-2 (5
inputs, 9 hidden and 2 output neurons) appears to be the most
optimal topology.
Fig. 9 presents the configuration of the two-layer back
propagation network selected in this work. The input layer
includes Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle, and T2. The hidden layer has nine

nodes, and the output layer includes COP and Q cool .
Once the training process was finished, we proceeded to
compare the predicted values from ANN model with actual
values. We used a set of 190 patterns as the test data. The
accuracy of the ANN model was evaluated on the basis of the

Fig. 11 e Comparison of actual and ANN-predicted values

of cooling capacity for the absorption chiller provided with
two storage tanks.

regression analysis of estimated versus measured values, in

terms of the slope e a, intercept e b of the linear fit, the
determination coefficient - R, RMSE and MBE. Figs. 10 and 11
present the comparison between the actual and predicted

values of COP and Q cool , for absorption system, respectively.

The actual COP and Q cool were calculated as explained in
paragraph 2. The aforementioned above figures show that the
majority of the experimental points are located over the
perfect adjust line 1:1, illustrating minimal dispersion.
The RMSE error caused by the network in every case is less
than 0.70%, and the deviation is practically null. It is noted
that R values are equal and reach around 0.99, and all the slope
values are equal to 1 while the intercept values are very small.
We can observe that the training values resulting in a good
match to the experimental values.

5.

Fig. 10 e Comparison of actual and ANN-predicted values

of COP for the absorption chiller provided with two storage
tanks.

Conclusions

The main objective of this study was to emphasize the great

importance of hot water storage tanks integration in a solarassisted air-conditioning system. The storage tanks system is
very useful not only in the clods alternation when the solar
hot water temperature is too low to cover the absorption
machine demand but especially in the starter moments in the
morning and whenever the incident radiation is minor than
400 [Wm2]. It has been observed the solar-assisted airconditioning system could function only 28% of its total
operating time (from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m.) working with no thermal
storage. In this work, real data of an operating solar-assisted
air-conditioning system provided from storage tanks was
used to derive an ANN systems model to predict the coefficient of performance and cooling capacity of the absorption
chiller. The main aim of the present study was to determine
the unique ANN model with a minimal number of input
variables. Finally, the total of five variables were used as the

1454

i n t e r n a t i o n a l j o u r n a l o f r e f r i g e r a t i o n 3 4 ( 2 0 1 1 ) 1 4 4 6 e1 4 5 4

more favourable configuration of the network inputs entering and leaving generators temperature, entering and
leaving evaporators temperature and the second storage
tanks temperature. Results demonstrate accurate predictions
from the ANN model, yielding an RMSE less than 0.70% and
practically null deviation, which can be considered very
satisfactory. Results obtained through this prediction are very
useful for control and monitoring strategies. The selection of
the ANNs inputs permits reduction of the monitoring costs,
since we are able to avoid a lot of redundant measurements
points. In this work we determined a methodology, which
could be easily adapted to other systems with the main goal to
improve the design of solar-assisted systems making them
more attractive to potential users. Considering obtained
acceptable results, we point out that future study in this field
should focus on the use of the artificial neural networks to
predict the global systems efficiency and energy use when the
system works at all operation modes, considering the energy
provided from all heat sources.

Acknowledgements
This research has been carried out with the help of the project
PSE-ARFRISOL (The Singular Strategic Project called Bioclimatic Architecture and Solar Cooling), PS-120000-2005-1
financed by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science
(MEC). The authors would like to thank to all companies and
institutions included in PSE-ARFRISOL project.

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