Residential solar heating and cooling using evacuated tube solar collectors: CSU Solar House III. Final report, management summary, February 1, 1976-September 30, 1978

The principal objective of the project is to test and evaluate the practicality of an integrated evacuated tube solar collector and absorption space cooling system installed in Colorado State University (CSU) Solar House III. This objective was to be accomplished by designing and installing a complete solar heating and cooling system (including appropriate instrumentation), performing detailed analysis and evaluation of all aspects of the system, and comparing seasonal performance with two other solar heating and cooling systems installed in adjacent buildings with virtually identical thermal characteristics. The two comparison system, installed in CSU Solar Houses I and II, consist of conventional solar water-heating and air-heating flat-plate collectors. The system in CSU Solar House III was comprised of a 48 m/sup 2/ (512 ft/sup 2/) liquid-heating evacuated tube solar collector array, 4550 liter (1200 gallon) thermal storage water tank, 7.03 kW (2-ton) lithium bromide absorption chiller, cool storage subsystem, and other components of the heating and cooling system.