Title: Implementation of inverter-driven household refrigerator/freezer using hydrocarbon isobutane for refrigeration.
Abstract: Hydrocarbon (HC) isobutane (R600a) is one of the environmental friendly refrigerants to the greenhouse effect, and is applied to household refrigerator/freezer (HRF) with fixed frequency (FF) AC induction compressor successfully around the world. As well, the novel variable frequency (VF) HRF has significant energy-efficiency potential and also has a great benefit of low noise. This paper describes the development of a VF HRF using refrigerant R600a driven by a variable-speed reciprocating compressor with a brushless DC (BLDC) motor inside. To compare the performance between the refrigerants R600a and HFC-134a, two inverter-driven HRFs with the same cabinet model are fabricated and studied experimentally. The gross inner volume for this cabinet model is rated 560 litres with a top-mounted freezer of 133 litres. By a steady test of 24 hours, the energy consumption of the R600a VF HRF is 1.426 kWh/day with 12% lower than that of the HFC-134a VF HRF, which rates 1.620 kWh/day under the same storage temperatures and ambient conditions. To deduce the efficiency improvement of VF BLDC compressors for HFC-134a and R600a, the data for the FF HRFs of the same model are also provided. The energy saving potential of HRF with VF BLDC compressor is about 35% for using refrigerants HC R-600a and HFC-134a.
Publication Year: 2008
Publication Date: 2008-07-14
Language: en
Type: article
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Cited By Count: 1
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