Investigation on an Improved Household Refrigerator for Energy Saving of Residential Buildings

Abstract

The efficiency improvement of household refrigerators is of significance to electricity consumption reduction of residential buildings. The cold loss recovery in household refrigerators is a promising development direction. In this study, a refrigerator improved by heat pipes is designed to reduce the cold loss at freezer walls to enhance the overall efficiency of the refrigerator. A complete steady-state mathematical model is built for characterizing its overall energy saving behaviors by introducing the real structural parameters of a Midea BCD-111 refrigerator and measured temperature boundary conditions. The performances of the improved refrigerator are investigated with typical operating states, variable ambient temperature, and heat pipe design. The simulative results indicate that the cold loss of the freezer of the improved refrigerator can be reduced by 8.3–16.5%, and the energy saving capability is relatively reliable. Results verify that the cold loss recovery of the improved refrigerator is feasible in various operating conditions.