This paper addresses the viability of using the integrated Solar Heating Cooling (SHC) systems in residential buildings in UAE, by studying the thermal performance and potential energy savings, in addition to the economical and environmental aspects such as payback period and reduction in CO2 emissions. This work involves integration of the absorption chiller with solar thermal collectors to provide a continuous cooling. In the absence of sun, the bio-mass heater is used as an auxiliary heating source. A comprehensive mathematical thermal model was developed to represent the fully integrated system, which was implemented to determine the useful energy for two selected building configurations based in UAE; fully solar cooling powered one-floor office building and hybrid four-floor residential building at different percentages of solar penetration. The obtained results for the fully solar powered system, showed that about 159 kWh and 126 ton/year savings were achieved in the Annual Energy Consumption (AEC) and CO2 emissions, respectively. Based on the performed numerical studies on the integrated SHC system of the residential building, the maximum solar penetration of 20% was found to be optimum as it reduced AEC by 176 kWh and cut off CO2 emissions by 140 ton/year with a payback period of 4 years. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.