Refrigerator COP with thermal storage

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Due to the extreme necessity to diversify renewable energy sources, the search for energy recycling methods through the utilization of thermal losses from equipment has become fundamental. Thus, these losses can be used as a new source of energy for water heating and storage in domestic hot water storage tanks (DHWST). For this reason, the construction of an experimental apparatus with a cylindrical thermal storage tank is proposed, in which the objective of the study will be a survey of the coefficient of performance concerning conventional and modified refrigerators, as well as to perform an analysis of hot water, through the thermal stratification technique using a refrigerator with a modified condenser. The collected thermal loss, as per the thermosyphon principle, will be stored as thermal energy. The results showed the full operation of the modified refrigeration system, which did not reveal significant alterations in thermodynamic behavior after the modifications made on the condenser. The dynamic behavior of the thermal distribution was observed through the thermal stratification effect and temperature evolution in terms of time, showing greater variability of the modified refrigerator generating more thermal comfort to users in addition to providing domestic hot water. Crown Copyright (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.