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New solutions for household refrigerator performance improvement.

Number: pap. 2616

Author(s) : MORRIESEN A., THIESSEN M. R., RONZONI A. F., et al.

Summary

This paper presents the experimental results gathered during the application of two alternative solutions for household refrigerators energy consumption improvement, namely (i) flooded evaporator architecture and (ii) pulse width modulation (PWM) control logic. The experiments were carried out in 360-liters bottom-mounted natural draft household refrigerator-freezer using a 6.8 cm3 R-600a variable displacement hermetic linear compressor. The tests were carried out at two different ambient temperatures (16°C and 32°C). The flooded evaporator circuit is comprised of a dual-evaporator cycle architecture which has a liquid accumulator connected to the fresh-food evaporator outlet. Due to its architecture, this concept can present energy consumption performance similar to parallel circuits with the benefits of lower circuitry complexity (similar to the ones found on serial-hybrid architecture), demanding neither check valve nor pump out. However, due to its characteristics, this cycle architecture requires an oil-free compressor to avoid oil to be trapped at the accumulator. The experimental results with the flooded evaporator solution have shown a 4.7% energy consumption reduction at 32°C. The second solution presented herein is comprised of a PWM control logic, which produces short on-off cycles in order to modulate cooling capacity. During the on-period the compressor has high input power and high capacity whereas it deliveries zero capacity at lowest power input. This concept leads to an overall higher COP, especially for systems operating at low thermal load conditions. The experimental tests were carried out by modulating compressor cooling capacity (according to the compressor power input), cycle period and duty cycle. Experimental results have shown energy consumption improvement up to 2.7% and 7% at 32°C and 16°C, respectively.

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Pages: 10

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Details

  • Original title: New solutions for household refrigerator performance improvement.
  • Record ID : 30024673
  • Languages: English
  • Source: 2018 Purdue Conferences. 17th International Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Conference at Purdue.
  • Publication date: 2018/07/09

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