Performance Improvement of a Domestic Refrigerator Using Phase change Material (PCM)

Abstract

Thermal energy storage through phase change material has been used for wide applications in the field of air conditioning and refrigeration. The specific use of this thermal storage has been for energy storage during low demand and release of this energy during peak loads with potential to provide energy savings due to this. Lately through the application of this type of phase change materials in refrigeration to save energy or operate during the power outage has been under active consideration. The use of latent heat storage is especially suited to the storage of energy to prolong food preservation time and also use the excessive stored energy to improve the freezer cooling cycle by its release at appropriate time. The principle of latent heat storage using phase change materials (PCMs) can be incorporated into a thermal storage system suitable for using deep freezers. The evaporator is covered with another box which has storage capacity or passage through phase change material. The objective of this work is to prolong the food preservation time. The energy stored in the PCM is yielded to the refrigerator cell during the off cycle and allows several hours of continuous operation without power supply. The main objective is to improve the performance , cooling time period, storage capability, and to maintain the constant cooling effect for more time during power off periods using the phase change material (KCl+H2O). The results revealed that the performance is increased from 3.2 to 3.5 by using PCM (KCl+H2O).