LATENT HEAT STORAGE FOR EFFICIENT COOLING AND HEATING SYSTEMS

摘要

The invention relates to a combined heating/cooling system whose efficiency is influenced less by changing ambient conditions. To this end, a latent heat storage (synonym: PCM storage, PCM = phase change material) is used for absorbing the waste heat given off by a cooling system during the cooling operation. This enables a defined low temperature level to be provided for the recooling of the cooling system, independent of the ambient temperatures prevailing during the operation of the cooling system. The temperature level of the recooling is determined by the transition temperature of the latent heat storage. A phase change of the storage material occurs at this temperature. The storage effect affects the absorption or release of latent heat during the changing of the state of aggregation. This makes it possible to operate the cooling system with recooling temperatures that are lower than when using a conventional recooling installation. As a result, the solar collector temperature can be lowered whereby increasing the efficiency of the system, i.e. the cooling yield per collector surface of the solar collector system. The use of a latent heat storage comprises, with regard to the storage of sensible heat, the decisive advantage in that the storage can be operated during the entire loading process at an approximately constant temperature.