Abstract:
Energy saving and resources and environment preservation are key factors for the sustainable development of our
society and hence domestic appliances are also targeted for energy efficiency improvements. Because refrigerators are
the largest energy consuming appliances in households due to their widespread use and continuous operation there is a
need for rigorous investigations regarding the energy consumption and efficiency of these devices. In the present paper
the results of experimental tests are presented; in order to predict the energy consumption of the appliance in different
operating conditions (ambient temperature, load and door openings) a simplified model was developed, based on the
experimental data. A statistical analysis of the model was then performed in order to evaluate the goodness-of-fit
between the model and the experimental data. The tests were performed in different days (starting at 7 a.m. each day)
between may, 2015, and september, 2015. As the aim was to obtain results for two different ambient temperatures
(250C and 300C) there was a selection of the results in order to achieve this goal; for the selected tests the actual mean
environmental temperatures were: 25.080C and 30.040C respectively. The Multi linear regression method was used in
order to develop the energy consumption model. The results confirmed that refrigerator load and ambient temperature
have a significant effect on the energy consumption, when there was no door opening during the test period; when door
openings were taken into account the significance of the above-mentioned factors was diminished.
