Solar combi plus systems use heat from solar thermal collectors to provide heating in winter, cooling in summer and domestic hot water all year round. The figure below sketches the main components, which make up a typical system: (i) the solar thermal collector to provide the heat usually backed up by an auxiliary heat source, (ii) a storage tank can either be installed on the hot side, as shown in the figure, on the cold side or on both, (iii) a domestic hot water preparation unit, (iv) the sorption chiller is fed with hot water (70-100°C), (v) heat rejection at intermediate temperature (30-40°C) to a cooling tower (dry or wet) or another heat sink (e.g. a swimming pool), (vi) the cold distribution system (e.g. a chilled ceiling, fan-coils or air handling units) and (vii) the heat distribution (preferably a low temperature system).

Typical setup of a solar combi plus system