A refrigerator is the most common and efficient method for preserving food and medicine, although its continuous operation consumes a considerable amount of household energy. Accordingly, optimizing its energy consumption is required. Thus, this study investigated a household refrigerator’s overall functionality with phase change materials (PCMs) on the evaporator. The tests involved the application of single and double PCMs to the freezer and fridge evaporators in various configurations. The arrangement of double PCMs is dependent on the surface temperature of the evaporators. The experiments are performed based on ISO standards for testing the energy consumption of household refrigerators. As a result, the overall performance of a refrigerator is optimized more with a double PCM than with a single PCM. The refrigerators with single and double PCMs saved 17.94% and 29.65% of energy and optimized the coefficient of performance (COP) by 3.38% and 5.43%. Despite their increasing temperatures, the temperature variation dropped by 31.88-35.98% and 78.74-100.8% in the freezer and fridge cabinets, respectively.

household refrigerator, evaporator, phase change material, coefficient of performance.

Received: March 3, 2023; Accepted: April 12, 2023; Published: May 18, 2023

How to cite this article: Darawan Bazyan Dhahir and Ahmed Mohammed Adham, Performance enhancement of a household refrigerator using single and double phase change materials (PCM) on the evaporator: experimental study, JP Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 33 (2023), 135-154. http://dx.doi.org/10.17654/0973576323028

This Open Access Article is Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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