Steady state performance variation of domestic refrigerators under different ambient conditions of Sri Lanka

Abstract

There is a non-negligible variation in climatic conditions in different geographical locations of Sri Lanka. Testing the performance under single climatic condition will not reflect the actual performance of a refrigerator at its intended deployment. This research is aimed at studying the performance of a domestic refrigerator unit under simulated climatic conditions representing different climate zones in Sri Lanka with respect to its dry bulb temperature. Experiments were conducted under controlled environmental conditions to emulate the climatic conditions of different climatic zones in Sri Lanka. Average hourly power consumption under each climatic condition was calculated from the results. Projected annual energy consumption and performance of the overall refrigeration cycle were also estimated. Results indicated a 5.6% increase of energy consumption per 1̊C increase of ambient temperature. Annual power consumption shows 54.2% variation within the evaluated locations. A simulation model was developed to perform the evaluation. Existing mathematical model was adopted to calculate the performance of the refrigeration cycle.