Enhancement of household refrigerator energy efficiency by studying the effect of refrigerant charge and capillary tube length

Abstract

Experiments were carried out initially by considering pure R134a and hydrocarbon refrigerant mixtures such as (R290/R600a) (HCM1 44/56, HCM2 50/50, HCM3 54/46, HCM4 64/36, and HCM5 74/26 wt %). Tests are conducted at the atmospheric temperature of 30°C in a domestic refrigerator system. The performance parameters such as pull-down time, desired effect, power consumption, and running cost of the system are to be analysed at different evaporator temperatures, the mass of refrigerant and varying length of capillary tubes. To evaluate the refrigeration effect, Power consumption and COP of the domestic refrigerator at various freezer temperatures (-9°C, -12°C & -15°C) were selected. Results report that out of all the alternative mixtures the amount of energy input was less consumed in the case of HCM1 at a minimal expansion length of 6.3 mm. In the case of HCM5, the least energy was consumed at a capillary length of 5.24 mm whereas in the case of R134a it was at 3.3 mm.