Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 2894e2901

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Renewable Energy
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/renene

Technical Note

Modelling a solar-assisted air-conditioning system installed in CIESOL building

using an articial neural network
S. Rosiek a, b, F.J. Batlles a, b, *
a
b

Dpto. Fsica Aplicada, Universidad de Almera, 04120 Almera, Spain

CIESOL, Joint Centre University of Almeria-CIEMAT, 04120 Almeria, Spain

a r t i c l e i n f o

a b s t r a c t

Article history:
Received 9 July 2009
Accepted 20 April 2010
Available online 20 May 2010

This paper proposes Articial Neural Networks (ANN) to model a solar-assisted air-conditioning system
installed in the Solar Energy Research Center (CIESOL). This system consists mainly of the single-effect LiBrH20 absorption chiller fed by water provided from either solar collectors or hot water storage tanks. The
present work describes the total solar cooling systems based on absorption chiller and provided only with
solar collectors. The experimental data were collected during the cooling period of 2008. ANN was used
with the main goal of predicting the efciency of the chiller and global system using the lowest number of
input variables. The conguration 7-8-4 (7 inputs, 8 hidden and 4 output neurons) was found to be the
optimal topology. The results demonstrate the accuracy ANNs predictions with a Root Mean Square Error
(RMSE) of less than 1.9% and practically null deviation, which can be considered very satisfactory.
2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords:
Absorption chiller
Water-lithium bromide
Articial neural network

1. Introduction
In recent years, the rising costs of energy and concerns over
climate change have made it necessary to resort to clean energy
systems that are respectful for earths ecosystem. Therefore,
numerous countries of the European Union promote energy saving
policies and the use of renewable energies. All those facts have
contributed to an increase of thermal solar energy in the construction industry to produce domestic hot water and to cover the heating
and cooling demands in single homes or ofce buildings.
In the last few years, solar powered air-conditioning systems
have been in intensive development and considered as viable
applications for the thermal solar systems in southern Europe. This
is mainly due to the increasing higher electrical consumption in
many countries (especially in Spain), which increases in the
summer season due to increased usage of cooling systems in this
period of the year. One of the main consequences of this increasing
power consumption is the appearance of frequent power grid
breakdowns during the summer period.
The latter problem is a very important argument for alternative
cooling systems. In recent years, signicant research has been
devoted to improving the absorption refrigeration system, and solar
cooling has been shown to be technically feasible. Cooling is
* Corresponding author. Tel.: 34 950 015914; fax: 34 950 015477.
E-mail address: fbatlles@ual.es (F.J. Batlles).
0960-1481/$ e see front matter 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.renene.2010.04.018

a particularly attractive application for solar energy because of the

simultaneous peak in cooling loads with the availability of solar
power [1,2]. Solar-assisted air-conditioning systems based on
absorption chillers are able to cover the cooling demand with
signicant reduction of power consumption and CO2 emissions. The
actual performance of the system in eld level depends on many
factors, such as cooling demand, cooling water temperature availability, sources of heat input, and its potential. Hence, detailed
modelling is required to predict the performance of the chiller
considering all the above factors [3]. Unfortunately, the number of
available models for an absorption chiller is small, and very little
research has been conducted to model total solar cooling systems
based on the absorption chiller and provided with solar collectors. In
the last decades, articial neural network techniques (ANN) have
attracted particular attention for system modelling. ANNs are able to
learn key information patterns within multidimensional information domains. A number of researchers have already demonstrated
the application of ANNs in heating, ventilating and air-conditioning
systems, solar radiation, load forecasting and energy [4e13].
The main purpose of this study is to predict and evaluate the
behaviour of the solar-assisted air-conditioning system installed in
Ciesol building and driven by solar energy, presented recently by
Rosiek and Batlles [14]. The main goal of this work is to use a neural
network to estimate coefcients of performance and the cooling
capacity of the absorption machine and also to estimate the global
efciency of the total solar cooling installation.

S. Rosiek, F.J. Batlles / Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 2894e2901

Nomenclature
Cp
I
Tout
Tin
_c
m
_g
m
Teg
Tlg
_e
m
Tee
Tle

specic heat capacity of water [4.18 kJkg1 K1]

incident radiation intensity [Wm2]
leaving at-plate collectors temperature [ C]
entering at-plate collectors temperature [ C]
collectors mass ow rate [m3/h]
generators mass ow rate [m3/h]
entering generators temperature [ C]
leaving generators temperature [ C]
evaporators mass ow rate [m3/h]
entering evaporators temperature [ C]
leaving evaporators temperature [ C]

2. Description of solar-assisted air-conditioning system

In this work, 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 atplate collectors array with a total surface of 160 m2, a hot water
driven single-effect LiBreH2O absorption chiller with a rated
capacity of 70 kW (Yazaki), a cooling tower, two hot storage tanks
with a capacity of 5000 l each, as well as an auxiliary heater and the
necessary peripheral equipment, such as valves and pumps. The
system has many measurements points. Insulation, temperature
and ow sensors have been installed with the main purpose of
providing specialized knowledge about the total cooling system.
Analysis of the aforementioned system and its various operation
modes has been recently presented by Rosiek and Batlles [14]. Fig. 1
presents the view of the CIESOL building with the collectors array
installed on the roof.
The system has been operating without interruption since
October 2006, partly satisfying the demand of the Ciesol building
for cooling in the summer and heating in the winter. Due to the
particular meteorological conditions of Almeria, the solar-assisted
air-conditioning system can operate in different modes. The rst
division between the summer and winter modes depends only on
period of the year; meanwhile, the second division depends on
temperatures found in the system. Thus, the system accounts for
the heating and cooling demands using the hot water provided
from the solar eld or hot storage tanks assisted by the auxiliary
heater. In this study, we analyze the behaviour of this system

2895

entering absorbers and condensers temperature [ C]

leaving absorbers and condensers temperature [ C]
absorbers and condensers mass ow rate [m3/h]
coefcient of performance
cooling capacity [kW]
the evaporator load [kW]
the heat delivered to generator [kW]
the useful collectors array energy [kW]
the incidence energy on the collectors array [kW]

Teac
Tlac
_ ac
m
COP
Q_ cool
Q_ ev
Q_ gen
E_ c1
E_
c2

Greek symbols
hs1
global systems efciency 1
hs2
global systems efciency 2

supplied with only solar energy to satisfy the cooling demand of the
Ciesol building. The chiller has minimum and maximum generators inlet temperatures of 70  C and 95  C, respectively; outside of
those values, the chiller will stop working. There is no auxiliary
heater, and once the cooling operation is selected and the leaving
at-plate collectors temperature is greater than the minimum
start-up temperature of the absorption machine (70  C), the chiller
will function automatically and remain in operation as long as there
is a demand for chilled water. Fig. 2 presents the general scheme of
the solar-assisted air-conditioning system operating in summer
mode and fed by hot water provided from collectors. In the present
paper, we aim to use all key monitoring variables indispensable for
correct system control. We use measurements of global radiation,
temperatures and mass ow rates of the absorption chiller and atplate collectors acquired with a 1 min sampling period.
Fig. 3 illustrates the scheme of the absorption chiller that Yazaki
applied in the system. The absorption chiller consists of the
generator, condenser, absorber, evaporator, heat exchanger and
expansion valve. The water red single-effect absorption chiller has
a cooling capacity of 70 kW and produces chilled water for cooling
in comfort air-conditioning applications. The absorption cycle is
energized by a heat medium (hot water) from solar energy, and the
condenser is water cooled through a cooling tower. The absorption
chiller uses a solution of lithium bromide and water as the working
uid. Water is the refrigerant, and lithium bromide, a nontoxic salt,
is the absorbent. Refrigerant, liberated by heat from the solution,
produces a refrigerating effect in the evaporator when cooling
water is circulated through the condenser and absorber [15].
The Coefcient of performance (COP) is dened as the quotient
between the heat absorbed in the evaporatorQ_ ev, and the heat
taken in the generator Q_ gen, and it is obtained from the following
equation [16]:

COP

_ e  Cp  Tee  Tle
m
Q_ ev


Q_ gen
_
mg  Cp  Teg  Tlg

(1)

where COP is the coefcient of performance, Q_ ev is the evaporators

_ e is the
load Q_ cool ,Q_ gen is the heat delivered to generator, m
evaporators mass ow rate (m3/h), Cp is the specic heat capacity
of water (4.18 kJ/kg K), Tee is the entering evaporators temperature,
_ g is the generators
Tle, is the leaving evaporators temperature, m
mass ow (m3/h), Teg is the entering generators temperature, Tlg is
the leaving generators temperature.
The global systems efciency 1, hs1 is dened as the quotient
between the cooling capacity and the useful collectors array energy
1 (c.f. Eq (2)):

Q_

Fig. 1. View of the CIESOL building with 160 m2 at-plate solar collectors array.

_ *C *T
m

T

le
hs1 _cool e p ee
_ c *Cp *Tout  Tin
m
Ec1

(2)

2896

S. Rosiek, F.J. Batlles / Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 2894e2901

Fig. 2. The general scheme of the solar-assisted air-conditioning system driven by solar energy.

Fig. 3. A schematic drawing of an absorption cycle.

S. Rosiek, F.J. Batlles / Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 2894e2901

2897

Fig. 4. A fully connected two-layer feedforward network with three inputs, two hidden, and two outputs.

_ c is the collectors
where E_ c1 is the useful collectors array energy, m
mass ow rate [m3/h], Tout is the leaving at-plate collectors
temperature, and Tin is the entering at-plate collectors
temperature.
Taking into account the energy loss in the at-plate collectors,
we introduce the global systems efciency 2, hs2 that is dened as
the quotient between the cooling capacity and the incidence
energy 2 on the collectors array (c.f. Eq (3)):

Q_

hs2 _cool
Ec2

_ e *Cp *Tee  Tle

m
A*I

(3)

where A is the total surface of the at-plate collectors array [m2]

and I is the incident radiation intensity [Wm2].
In this study, we attempt to predict and evaluate the behaviour
of the solar-assisted air-conditioning system installed in Ciesol
building and driven by solar energy. Articial intelligence techniques have been used to predict the coefcient of performance and
the cooling capacity of the absorption machine, as well as the global
efciency of the whole installation. The main purpose of this work
is to determine the unique ANN model with the lowest number of
input variables that would be able to estimate the coefcient of
performance, cooling capacity and global systems efciency of the
solar system.

(synaptic) weights. The function of the network is determined by the

architecture of the network, the magnitude of the weights and the
processing elements mode operation. The neuron, or node as it is also
called, is a processing element that takes a number of inputs, weights
them, sums them up, and uses the result as the argument for
a singular valued function, namely the activation function. The
displacement, wi,o, is called the bias and can be interpreted as a weight
applied to a pseudo input that is clamped to the constant value of 1.
Essentially, the activation function fi can take any form. Units can be
combined into a network in numerous fashions. The most common of
these is the multilayer perceptron (MLP) network. The basic MLPnetwork is constructed by ordering the units in layers, letting each
unit in a layer take as input only the outputs of units in the previous
layer or external inputs. Due to the structure, this type of network is
often referred to as a feedforward network. Fig. 4 shows the topology
of this network.
The second layer in Fig. 4 is called the output layer, referring to
the fact that it produces the output of the network. The rst layer is
known as the hidden layer because in some sense, it is hidden
between the external inputs (41, 42, 43) and the output layer. The
mathematical formula expressing the activity of the MLP-network
takes the form (c.f. Eq (4)).

2
yi t gi 4; q Fi 4

3. Methodology

nh
X
j1

Wi;j fj

n4
X

!
wj;l 4l wj;0

Wi;0 5

(4)

l1

q species the parameter vector, which contains all the adjustable

parameters of the network, i.e., the weights and biases {wj,l Wi,j}. To

3.1. ANN model description

A neural network can be dened as a system of simple processing
elements, neurons that are connected into a network by a set of
Table 1
Input and output parameters used for ANN absorption systems model.
Input variables


Entering generators temperature [ C]

Leaving generators temperature [ C]
Generators mass ow rate [m3/h]
Entering evaporators temperature [ C]
Leaving evaporators temperature [ C]
Evaporators mass ow rate [m3/h]
Entering absorbers and condensers temperature [ C]
Leaving absorbers and condensers temperature [ C]
Absorbers and condensers mass ow rate [m3/h]
Incident radiation intensity [Wm2]
Leaving at-plate collectors temperature [ C]
Entering at-plate collectors temperature [ C]
Collectors mass ow rate [m3/h]
Coefcient of performance
Cooling capacity [kW]
Global systems efciency 1 [%]
Global systems efciency 2 [%]

Table 2
RMSE errors of coefcient of performance, cooling capacity, global systems efciency 1 and global systems efciency 2 obtained during selection of inputs
variables.

Range

RMSE [%]

COP

66.9e87.8
61.5e79.6
14e16.4
8.5e13.3
6.4e11.3
8.7e9.4
26e29.4
29e34.3
7e40.9
250e768.8
72.3e98.9
63.6e78.8
1.9e13.6
0.01e0.84
0.84e43.5
0.67e99.7
0.86e78.5

_ c, m
_ g , Teg, Tlg, m
_ e , Tee, Tle, Teac, Tlac, m
_ ac ,
I, Tout, Tin,m
_ c, m
_ g , Teg, Tlg, m
_ e , Tee, Tle,
I, Tout, Tin, m
_ c, m
_ g , Teg, Tlg, m
_ e , Tee, Tle,
I, Tout, m
_ e , Tee, Tle, Teac, Tlac, m
_ ac
_ g , Teg, Tlg, m
m
_ c, m
_ g , Teg, Tlg, m
_ e , Tee, Tle,
Tout, m
_ c , Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle,
I, Tout, Tin, m
I, Tout, Tin, , Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle,
_ c , Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle,
I, Tout, m
_ c , Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle,
I, Tin, m
_ e , Tee, Tle,
_ g , Teg, Tlg, m
m
_ e , Tee, Tle,
Teg, Tlg, m
_ g , Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle,
m
_ e , Tee, Tle,
_ g , Tlg, m
m
_ e , Tee, Tle,
_ g , Teg, m
m
_ e , Tle,
_ g , Teg, Tlg, m
m
_ e , Tee,
_ g , Teg, Tlg, m
m
Teg, Tlg, Tee, Tle

0.89
0.49
0.898 0.33
1.33
0.35
1.64
0.57
1.79
0.48
2.38
1.47
3.26
1.53
2.44
1.49
2.49
1.46
1.79
0.64
2.97
0.778
2.17
1.75
16.72
0.98
13.2
0.67
11.51 12.05
11.3
12.93
3.64
1.57

Qcool

hs1

hs1

1.61
1.08
1.89
15.52
2.32
2.07
14.53
2.09
6.5
15.6
22.92
17.17
16.89
16.7
19.68
19.49
23.53

0.99
0.80
0.98
14.06
10.41
1.58
2.28
1.58
1.6
13.87
14.98
14.53
14.17
15.21
18.68
19.99
14.81

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S. Rosiek, F.J. Batlles / Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 2894e2901

18
16

COP
Cooling capacity
Global systems efficiency 1
Global systems efficiency 2

14

RMSE [%]

12
10
8
6

Fig. 7. ANN architecture used for the absorption system.

4
2
0

set. The training and testing data were normalized between 0 and
1, using (c.f. Eq (5)):
0

10

12

14

16

18

20

Nh

xscaled

Fig. 5. RMSE evolution vs. the increase of hidden units.

determine the weighting values, one must have a set of examples of

how the outputs, yi , should relate to the inputs, 4l. The task of
determining the weights from these examples is called training or
learning. That is, the weights are estimated from the examples in
such a way that the network, according to some metric, models the
true relationship as accurately as possible [17].
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.
3.2. ANN model development and results
To determinate the ANN solar-assisted air-conditioning
systems model, a set of 1639 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 the data acquisition system
from July 14, 2008 to September 30, 2008, and the output
parameters were estimated through the equation (c.f. Eq (1)e(3)).
In order to carry out the network training, 1148 data patterns were
used, and the remaining 491 patterns were used as the test data

0.04

MBE [%]

0.02
0
-0.02
-0.04
COP
Cooling capacity
Global systems efficiency 1
Global systems efficiency 2

-0.06
-0.08
-0.1

10

12

14

16

Nh
Fig. 6. MBE evolution vs. the increase of hidden units.

18

20

(5)

where xmax and xmin are equal to the maximum and minimum
recorded values for each variable x. In order to determine the 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 [12]. In this study, we attempt to predict the
performance of the absorption chiller and solar-assisted airconditioning system driven by solar energy with the main aim of
lowering the initial input parameters.
In order to assess the accuracy of the neural models, we analyze
the results in terms of the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) and
Mean Bias Error (MBE) expressed as a percentage of the measured
mean. The RMSE gives the dispersion of the experimental data and
is dened as:

s
P
Xestimated  Xmeasured 2
RMSE
N

(6)

where Xestimated is the predicted value, Xmeasured is the measured

value, and N is the number of data patterns.
The MBE gives the tendency above the underestimation of
experimental data and is expressed by the following equation:

P
MBE

0.06

x  xmin
xmax  xmin

Xestimated  Xmeasured
N

(7)

to verify the inuence 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 coefcient of performance, cooling
capacity, global systems efciency 1 and global systems efciency
2 obtained during selection of inputs variables for the ANN solarassisted air-conditioning 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 four output variables. Through the analysis of the results presented in Table 2, we select the more favourable conguration of
ANN model input variables. To carry out the network training, 1148
data patterns were used, where the number of input variables was
varied. The selection of the input variables was started with the
conguration of 13 variables, and we progressively decreased the
number of variables by taking into account their importance.

S. Rosiek, F.J. Batlles / Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 2894e2901

2899

Table 3
Hidden layers weight coefcients values used for the ANN absorption system model.
Neuron position

Teg

Tlg

Tee

Tle

Tout

_c
m

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

1.5278
0.55469
11.8368
0.30936
5.399
0.021636
0.01311
0.4398

0.79261
0.18282
8.748
1.1464
5.0261
0.051363
0.016958
1.7373

2.3514
3.221
0.47654
1.3636
0.91253
1.2055
0.67483
2.3709

2.4059
3.3173
0.81775
1.4366
0.89483
1.2423
0.68305
2.3785

0.27875
0.36551
0.14454
0.037018
0.016691
1.3933
0.006323
0.2035

0.64607
0.20298
1.6177
2.1581
0.06449
0.062088
0.0030279
1.9116

0.03944
0.17191
1.9496
3.8502
0.2845
0.063422
0.0098394
1.2839

Table 4
Output layers weight coefcients values used for the ANN absorption system model.
Neuron
position

COP

Cooling
capacity

Global systems
efciency 1

Global systems
efciency 2

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8

2.8762
0.028259
1.4433
0.051989
4.678
0.07957
0.9464
0.0084452

0.97982
0.094677
0.045819
0.051775
0.22426
0.1714
2.6076
0.0066782

2.0107
0.24599
0.31014
3.2357
0.026647
0.088725
1.0961
0.33812

1.1401
0.13285
0.060249
0.056953
0.21391
1.6093
1.4545
0.0068064

Finally, we chose incident radiation intensity, leaving at-plate

collectors temperature, collectors mass ow rate, entering generators temperature, leaving generators temperature, entering
evaporators temperature, and leaving evaporators temperature as
the more favourable conguration of the network inputs. Table 2
shows that the statistical results of RMSE errors of coefcient of
performance, cooling capacity, global systems efciency 1 and
global systems efciency 2 for this network conguration were
2.44%, 1.49%, 2.09% and 1.58%, respectively.
After the input and output model variables were xed, the next
step consists of determining the network architecture [12]. Several
MLPs networks with different numbers of hidden neurons (Nh)

were trained. Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate RMSE and MBE evaluation

versus the increasing number of hidden neurons, respectively. As
can be seen, for numbers of hidden neurons higher than 8, the
RMSE became almost constant, and the maximum and minimum
deviations were found are 0.04 and 0.08, respectively. Finally, the
architecture 7-8-4 (7 inputs, 8 hidden and 4 output neurons)
appears to be the most optimal topology.
Fig. 7 presents the conguration of the two-layer back propagation network selected in this work. The input layer includes the
entering generators temperature (Teg), leaving generators
temperature (Tlg), entering evaporators temperature (Tee), leaving
evaporators temperature (Tle), incident radiation intensity (I),
leaving at-plate collectors temperature (Tout) and collectors mass
_ c . The hidden layer has eight nodes, and the output
ow rate m
layer includes coefcient of performance (COP), cooling capacity
Q_ cool , global systems efciency 1 (hs1) and global systems efciency 2 (hs2).
Tables 3 and 4 presents the hidden layers and output layers
weight coefcients values used for the ANN absorption systems
model. Those coefcients can be used to derive the mathematical
formulations to calculate the COP, Qcool, hs1, and hs2.
Once the training process was nished, we proceeded to
compare the predicted values from ANN model with actual values.
We used a set of 491 patterns as the test data. The accuracy of the
ANN model was evaluated on the basis of the regression analysis of

45

40

0.9

Predicted COP

0.8
0.7
0.6

Predicted cooling capacity [kW]

a=0.999
b=6.07e-6
R=0.9985
RMSE=1.58%
MBE=-0.00064%

0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0

35

a=1
b=-0.0001
R=0.998
RMSE=0.89%
MBE=-0.00041%

30
25
20
15
10
5

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9

Actual COP
Fig. 8. Comparison of actual and ANN-predicted values of COP for the absorption
chiller.

10

20

30

40

Actual cooling capacity [kW]

Fig. 9. Comparison of actual and ANN-predicted values of cooling capacity for the
absorption chiller.

2900

S. Rosiek, F.J. Batlles / Renewable Energy 35 (2010) 2894e2901

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. Furthermore, the results obtained
above are fairly close to those listed in [3].

Predicted global systems efficiency 1 [%]

100
90
80

a=1
b=0.00016
R=0.998
RMSE=1.87%
MBE=-0.00057%

70
60

4. Conclusions

50
40
30
20
10
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100

Actual global systems efficiency 1 [%]

Fig. 10. Comparison of actual and ANN-predicted values of global systems efciency 1
for the absorption system.

Predicted global systems efficiency 2 [%]

estimated versus measured values, in terms of the slope e a,

intercept - b of the linear t, the determination coefcient - R,
RMSE and MBE. Figs. 8e11 present the comparison between the
actual and predicted values of COP, cooling capacity, global systems
efciency 1 and global systems efciency 2 for absorption system,
respectively. The actual COP, cooling capacity, global systems efciency 1 and 2 were calculated as explained in Section 2. The
aforementioned gures 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 1.9%, and the deviation is practically null. It is
noted that R values are similar and reach around 0.998, and all the

60

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 nanced 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.
References

50

a=1
b=-0.0002
R=0.999
RMSE=0.94%
MBE=-0.0008%

40

30

20

10

The main goal of this study was to describe the approach followed to set up an articial neural network model that was found
to be practically applicable to a solar-assisted air-conditioning
system. In this work, real data of an existing operating solarassisted air-conditioning system was used to derive an ANN
systems model to predict the efciency of both the chiller and the
global system. We attempt to outline a feasible path for the models
input parameters and architecture identication. The architecture
7-8-4 (7 inputs, 8 hidden and 4 output neurons) was the most
successful from those tried. The main aim of the present study was
to determine the unique ANN model with a minimal number of
input variables. Results demonstrate accurate predictions from the
ANN model, yielding a Root Mean Square Error (RMSE) less than
1.9% and practically null deviation, which can be considered very
satisfactory. The ANN model applied in this paper was developed
for WFC SC 20-hot water driven single-effect LiBreH2O absorption
chiller with a rated capacity of 70 kW, but it can be easily adapted to
other absorption chillers. It can be used to predict the efciency of
a chiller and the global system, considering only the key variables of
generators and evaporators temperatures, incident radiation, and
collectors mass ow rate and leaving temperature. Considering the
obtained acceptable results, we point out that future study in this
eld should focus on the use of the articial neural network to
predict the efciency of the chiller and global system when the
system works at various operation modes, considering the energy
provided from all heat sources.

10

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30

40

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60

Actual global systems efficiency 2 [%]

Fig. 11. Comparison of actual and ANN-predicted values of global systems efciency 2
for the absorption system.

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