New generation of professional kitchen appliances with natural refrigerants and reduced energy consumption

This paper was presented at the IIR Gustav Lorentzen Conference in Glasgow (Sep. 2004). The project supported by the Danish Energy Agency, developed, tested and marketed a new generation of professional kitchen refrigerators and freezers. The new appliances, based on single-door upright refrigerators and freezers (most common), use propane (R-290) as refrigerant. Considerable electricity savings have been achieved through using new and more efficient compressors, using more efficient fans and introducing a new control strategy for the evaporator fan, using hot compressed gas to evaporate defrost water and changing the design in order to reduce the heat flow around the cabinet gasket region. The field test involved measuring electricity consumption, temperature inside and outside the 563-litre cabinet (called the 660-cabinet), the number of door openings and the accumulated time of door openings. The results show that electricity consumption was reduced by 47% for freezers and by 74% for refrigerators when compared with "old" models with identical outer dimensions and insulation thickness. The appliances are now available. Source: 6th IIR Gustav Lorentzen Natural Working Fluids Conference, Conference papers from Day 2 Sessions 3&4, 3/C/9.30. Authors: P.H. Pedersen, L. Soe, F. Jensen. You can order the proceeding CD-ROM of the Glasgow conference by clicking here.