Design, Fabrication, and Testing of a Portable, Solar-Powered Evaporative Cooling System for the Cabin of Parked Class-1 Automobiles

Abstract

The solar-powered evaporative cooling system is designed to be mounted in a car’s window for lowering the temperature inside, as the car experiences too much heat when exposed for a long time under the sun. Evaporative coolers work by changing hot air into a cool temperature by evaporating water into the air. The system operates with the solar panel powering the battery and the battery runs the components of the system. The researchers conducted the testing of the system in a Class 1 type of vehicle. Two vehicles were placed in a parking lot wherein one has the system and the other one does not. With the use of a thermometer and hygrometer, the temperature and relative humidity were both measured and used to have a comparison between the two cases to evaluate the performance of the system. The system was able to reduce the temperature build-up inside the vehicle on its different parts, while the inside relative humidity increased. The temperature drop was very significant since, without the system, the highest temperature recorded inside the car was 47 °C while the ambient temperature was at 37 °C. With the use of the system, the inside cabin temperature was able to decrease by 12 °C but the relative humidity is 62%. Although the rise in relative humidity was comparably low to the ambient relative humidity which is 60%, it is still ideal that the relative humidity must be low that is why dehumidifiers should be used. With the testing done, the system was able to reject 0.3251 kW of heat in which its achieved COP is 7.5.