Performance Analysis of Cold Energy Storage Using Phase Change Material

Abstract

Refrigeration is a method of extracting heat from low-temperature reservoir and shifting it to a high-temperature reservoir. The energy consumed by the refrigerator is increased day by day due to the changes in the standard of living and quick industrialization. In household appliances, the domestic refrigerator is the most energy consuming devices due their continuous operation. Efforts have been made in many countries to boost the COP of the refrigerators and reduce the energy consumption in the compressor. The above problems are rectified by using of Phase Change Material (PCM) in the domestic refrigerators. Due to the fact that over a large number of freezing/melting periods, PCM must be chemically and thermally stable. In the case of thermal energy storage in refrigerators, the PCM must be applicable and the choice of PCM in refrigeration systems is an important issue. The use of PCM in the evaporator segment minimizes compressor dome temperature fluctuations and provides stable conditions against changes in thermal loads. The main objective of the present research is to investigate the household refrigerator using Phase Change Material. The experimental results showed important impacts on the performance of the system, the on-off compressor cycle and the reduction in electricity consumption. The results showed that 0.69 % increase in COP, 1.8 % decrease in compressor work and 6.7 % increase in refrigerator Effect. The dome temperature is reduced to 3.91% when compared to without PCM in the evaporator.