Energy consumption of domestic refrigerators using electronic energy saving devices

J. Van den Keybus1 2 (vdkeybus@esat.kuleuven.ac.be), R. Belmans2 (ronnie.belmans@esat.kuleuven.ac.be) Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Dept. ESAT, Div. ELECTA

Introduction
Peoples awareness of the need for reduction of their energy consumption is increasing, their motivations being both environmental as well as economic. Therefore, energy saving is gaining importance, even in the common household. The most effective way to reduce domestic energy consumption is to tackle the largest consumers first. In an average household this would be the refrigerator, which is continuously connected to the supply. For this purpose, electronic energy savers are sold, which have to be simply plugged between the refrigerator and the mains outlet. They are supposed to reduce the power consumption of the refrigerator, allegedly leading to a substantial reduction of the energy costs. This paper discusses the effectiveness of such devices, based on measurements on a refrigerator. Two energy saving devices are evaluated in 24 hour tests.

Operating principle
Both refrigerators and deep freezers use a single-phase induction motor to drive the compressor. Energy saving is achievable by reducing the motor voltage after startup, effectively reducing the magnetic flux in the machine as well as the iron losses. On the other hand, an insufficient magnetization of the machine causes excessive rotor and stator winding heating so an optimal working voltage must be found. This optimum depends on the load condition of the motor. Energy saving devices (further in this text abbreviated as ESD) employ phase chopping similar to traditional lamp dimmers using triacs. This produces a more distorted current, leading to e xtra losses both in the motor and the distribution grid. When the motor voltage is reduced, the torque-speed curve lowers as the torque is proportional to the squared rms voltage. If the load does not change, the m achine will operate at a slightly reduced speed. However, in the case of a refrigera1

The author currently holds a research scolarship of the Belgian Instituut voor de aanmoediging van Innovatie door Wetenschap en Technologie in Vlaanderen (IWT). 2 The research is part of the research program Generisch Basisonderzoek aan de Universiteiten (GBOU) of the IWT.

tor, the mechanical load of the motor the compressor does change (it is also proportional to the speed squared) and requires a lower torque. After a while, a new torque-speed equilibrium is reached. A slight decrease of the speed already reduces the cooling performance of the refrigerator considerably. The thermostat within the refrigerator compensates for the loss of cooling power by extending the motor on time. Due to the operation of the thermostat, a simple power measurement is not sufficient to assess the energy efficiency of a refrigerator using an ESD. It is necessary to measure the total energy consumption over an extended period of time.

Measurements
The uncertainty of the energy measurement is one on/off-cycle. The cycle time of the refrigerator used in the tests is about 15 min. To have a tolerance of about 1 % on the energy measurements (assuming the power measurements have an error which is at least one order of magnitude lower), the measurement must span about 100 cycles. Therefore, each test lasts for 24 hours. In the next sections, additional error sources and the measurement results are discussed. Also a 2 months lasting duration test is performed, to test the reliability of the ESD and to detect possible damage to the refrigerator motor, caused by the used voltage control technique. The refrigerator is an old type of the SIEMENS brand. During the energy measurements (last test) also a second, older electronic energy saving device is introduced (ESD B). The other test are all performed with the same, recent and available ESD.

Measurement equipment A Voltech PM3000A Power Analyzer is used to measure the energy consumption. The precision of this equipment is much better (< 0.1 %) than any other uncertainty in the test setup and is therefore neglected.

Environmental changes The room in which the refrigerator is placed, is air-conditioned with a HVAC installation. The room temperature is kept constant at 20 C, because the energy consumption of a refrigerator, although theoretically constant when a constant Coefficient of Performance (COP) is assumed, may vary a little with the difference between the inside and outside temperature. Due to practical reasons, the room temperature is not varied.

Refrigerator content The content of a refrigerator plays an important role. The objects inside the refrigerator have a heat capacity, to which the rate of temperature change in the refrigator is inversely proportional. This is due to the fact that the heat flow is constant and that the inside and outside temperature are also kept constant. A first series of tests is done with an empty refrigerator. The second series is performed with 48 small glass bottles of water inside. After insertion of the bottles, there is a 24-hour waiting period. The rate of temperature change obviously has a direct influence on the duty cycle of the thermostat, which switches the cooling source on and off on two predetermined temperatures. When switched on, the cooling source produces a constant heat flow. When it is off, the heat leakage through the wall isolation is also constant but opposite in direction and usually much smaller. When the refrigerator is empty, the on- and off-cycles are short because only a small amount of heat must be extracted. When it is full, the on- and off-cycles are longer. The graph in figure 1 shows the thermostat on- and off behaviour in different tests. The small xs in the graph are set whenever the refrigerator is in the on-state. There are 8 horizontal series, each covering 3 hours. 4 sets of data are shown in this figure, the corresponding measurement setup of which is given in table 1.
Table 1. Different setups used in the tests.

Sequence 1 2 3 4

Load condition ESD used Empty yes Empty - no Full yes Full no

The on- and off-cycle times are a bit shorter (both using an empty and a full refrigerator) when an ESD is used. The switching frequency is much lower when objects are present in the fridge (full). The duty cycle is important because it takes a few minutes for the refrigerant to reach an equilibrium between evaporation and condensation. In this time, up to 10 % more power is needed. To facilitate this startup, ESDs do not cut back the supply voltage during the first seconds. Figure 3 shows a typical current consumption with and without the use of an ESD. When on- or off-times are short, the compressor wastes energy more often in reaching the steady state. In other words, an empty refrigerator uses more energy than a filled one. Figure 3 also clearly shows that at any instant, the energy saving by the ESD is never more than 5 W. Additionally, when using the ESD, the refrigerator runs longer to compensate for this power loss. An ESD consumes also a little energy when the compressor is not operating.

-1

-2

-3

-4
Series

-5

-6

-7

-8

-9

2000

4000

6000 Time [s]

8000

10000

Fig. 1. ON states of the refrigerator in the 24-hour test.

Surprisingly, using an ESD increases both the duty cycle and the switching frequency. This effect is probably due to a reduced overall performance of the cooling cycle.
110 105 100

Power [W]

95 90 85 80 0 100 200 300 400 500

Time [s]
Fig. 2. Power consumption during the first minutes after startup.

Power measurement Table 2 lists the rms mains voltage, current, active and apparent power consumption of the refrigerator with and without ESD. The Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of the current is also listed.
Table 2. Power consumption

ESD used ? No Yes

Thermostat On Off On Off

U [V] 219,7 0,0 219,1 219,6

I [A] 742,3m 0,0m 646,9m 67,2m

P [W] 92,18 0,00 87,50 0,62

S [VA] 163,11 0,00 142,01 14,76

PF [-] 0,565 0,616 0,041

ITHD [%] 6,70 0,00 31,71 20,61

The 4.5 W power reduction does not mean that the compressor gets 4.5 W less power when using an ESD. The strong harmonic distortion of the motor current causes magnetic fields in the rotor rotating at speeds different from the synchronous speed. The result is rotor heating and reduced output torque, which is difficult to measure because the motor and compressor are tightly integrated in a hermetic package.

Energy consumption measurements Table 3 summarizes the total energy measurements. In this test, also a second, older ESD is evaluated (ESD B). In this table, the ESD used in the previous sections is called ESD A. The working principle of the second type is unknown.
Table 3. Energy consumption

Test

Time Etot Eeco Ein span [h] [Wh] [Wh] [Wh] 1 empty none 24 835,5 0,0 835,5 2 empty none 24 815,8 0,0 815,8 3 empty none 24 853,5 0,0 853,5 4 empty A 24 795,0 17,5 777,6 5 empty A 24 832,0 18,8 813,2 6 empty B 24 852,5 30,0 822,5 7 full none 24 762,1 8 full A 24 770,1 (* ): Compared to the identical case without energy saver.

Load

ESD

PF Measd. [-] 0,560 0,570 0,568 0,529 0,536 0,554 0,578 0,526

Saving (* ) [%] -

+ 2,56 - 2,10 - 1,05

Clearly, the ESD only provided marginal energy savings only in the rather unusual case of an empty refrigerator. This is contrary to the alledged 10 % energy saving mentioned by the ESD manufacturer.

Electrotechnical issues
The electrical schematic of a refrigerator, along with its supply voltage and current waveform using an ESD is shown in figure 3.
Thermostat Motor Main winding

M ~

Aux. winding

Mains

Startup relay

Fig. 3. Schematic and voltage and current waveform of a refrigerator using an ESD.

A short-circuited split pole winding (not on the schematic) provides the necessary phase shift to obtain a rotating field. An auxiliary winding, powered by a relay increases the field amplitude briefly to facilitate startup. No capacitor is used in the schematic. The influence of the steep voltage transients using an ESD, clearly visible in figure 3, on the life of the motor is still a subject of discussion in drive technology. The two month duration test showed no signs of deterioration, but it is expected that a refrigerator motor is not designed with such repeating voltage transients in mind.

Conclusions
Generally, energy savings by flux reduction is a questionable practice when the mechanical motor load is above 40 % of its rated value. Refrigerator motors, by design, match their compressor load well and flux reduction is expected to yield only marginal energy savings, if any. Also, although the power consumption is lower, the reduction of speed associated with flux reduction is compensated for by the thermostat. leading to a comp arable overall energy consumption. Experiments using an ordinary refrigerator confirm these statements. In specific situations, the use of an ESD may reduce the energy consumption, whereas in others, it may even increase it. The high current distortion and the unknown influence on the refrigerators lifetime are factors discouraging the widespread use of these devices.