In order to develop autonomous refrigeration systems, a prototype of solar refrigerating store has been installed in Tunisia. This unit uses water-zeolite adsorption system with plan collectors. A series of measurements allowed to determine the features of this unit: zeolite temperature, collector efficiency and solar and thermodynamic coefficients. To justify those measurements, a model was developped: this model whose linear base equations are included here-with enables us to describe the thermal transfers in the collectors and the water desorption. The use of this model in these experimental conditions allowed us to find a good agreement with the performances of this unit. This model was used to foresee possible performances according to the solar energy corresponding to various seasons. It was also used to foresee the variations in the performances according to the zeolite mass and it was shown that the optimal zeolite mass was included between 20 and 24 kg/sqm of collector. That justifies our choice of 22 kd/sqm used to make these collectors.
