The project faces difficulties related to the filter supply. The university procurement is still looking to find a reliable and reasonable channel for importing the needed filters. Due to the continental climate, Yerevan is a rather dusty city: the summer very intense winds remove and bring the desiccated upper layer of the soil. While there is a huge increase in the construction rate in Armenia, the construction infrastructure yet to solve a number of problems, that includes also HVAC components supply chain.

Due to this problem the system has been stopped last autumn, to be restarted very soon.

4. Powering the DESODEC system by PV.

It has been decided to amend the DESODEC project solar installation by a 5 kW PV system. The goal of this project was to provide independent and clean electric power for DESODEC system operation.

The average electric consumption of the DESODEC system is equal to 5 kW, with maximum value reaching up to 10 kW. The PV system has an inverter of 10 kW to meet the maximal power consumption need. The system has the following components: PV field; charge controllers; grid switch; battery bank; inverter; support structure; monitoring equipment. The battery bank is a series connection of 8 units of 6 volt Rolls deep cycle led acid solar batteries. The total capacity is 1150AH at 20 amperes discharge current, and 850AH for 100 amperes discharge current. At 48 volts this constitutes about 50 kWh of power stored, with average consumption of the DESODEC system equal to 5 kW it provides about 10 hours of uninterrupted operation. When batteries are exhausted and there is no sun, the DESODEC system switches to the grid [5].

One of the interesting outcomes of this part of the project is related to the architectural solution for installing SWH and PV panels onto a complex rooftop of an existing university building, illustrated in the fig. 6.

The DESODEC system operating experience can be used to improve future setups. A number of other

projects are expected to perform as a continuation for DESODEC (see e. g. [6]).

References

[1] J. Farinha Mendes, A. Hambarian, H-M Henning, V. Afyan, A. Pinov — “Solar Driven Desiccant Cooling Demonstration System” — Int. Congress on “Business and Investment for Renewable Energy in Russia”, May 31-June 04, 1999, Moscow.

[2] J. Farinha Mendes, A. Hambarian, H-M Henning, Tim Selke, V. Afyan, A. Pinov, F. Luginsland — “Solar Driven Desiccant Cooling System for American University of Armenia” — Int. Workshop on “Results of Fundamental Research for Investment, May 28-30, 2001, St. Petersburg.

[3] J. Farinha Mendes, A. Hambarian, H-M Henning, Tim Selke, V. Afyan, A. Pinov, F. Luginsland — “Experience of International Cooperation on Development of Cooling Systems for Buildings Using Solar Energy” — International. Workshop on Renewable Energy Applications, June 5-8, 2001, Moscow.

[4] J. Farinha Mendes, A. Hambarian, H-M Henning, Tim Selke, V. Afyan, A. Pinov, F. Luginsland — “Sistema de Demonstragao com Energia Solar e Tecnologia DEC para Arrefecimento Ambiente Instalado na Universidade Americana da Armenia” — Accepted for oral presentation at the XI Iberian and VI IberoAmerican Solar Energy Congress to be held in Vilamoura (Algarve, Portugal), 29 Sept — 02 Oct 2002.

[5] Zhozef Panosyan, Artak Hambaryan, Kenell Touryan, Armen Tumanyan, Yeremia Yengibaryan, Mikayel Piradyan, Arsen Darbasyan, Wilhelm Akunyan. Design, “Construction and Monitoring of a Solar

Photovoltaic Station of AUA” — 21st European Photovoltaic Solar Energy Conference, 4-8 September 2006, Dresden, Germany.

[6] Artak Hambarian. “Renewable Energy Related Projects of the Engineering Research Center of the American University of Armenia. Invited conference paper”. ArmTech 2007 Congress, July 4-7, San Francisco, CA USA.