Investigation on the Performance of the Domestic Refrigerator

A domestic Refrigerator designed to work with R-12 is used as a test unit to asses the possibility of using hydrocarbon blend (HR -12) as refrigerant. The mixture of propane (R 290) and Isobutane (R 600 a) is used as refrigerant. The performance of the refrigerator using HC blend as refrigerant is investigated and compared with performance of refrigerator when R-12 is used as refrigerant. The effects on COP, refrigerating effect, condenser duty, work of compression and heat rejection ratio are investigated. The energy consumption and heat abstraction capacity of the refrigerator during experiment with HC blend and R-12 is measured. The energy consumption and COP of HC blend shows that HC blend can be used as refrigerant in the domestic refrigerator. The COP and other results obtained in this experiment show a positive indication of using HC blend as refrigerant in domestic refrigerator.