Full Description

This study was designed to develop and test a procedure to measure the electrical consumption of ice making in domestic refrigerators. The Department of Energy (DOE) test procedure was modified to include the energy used for icemaking in conventional refrigerators and those equipped with automatic icemakers. The procedure assumed that 500 grams of ice would be produced daily. Using the new test procedure and the existing DOE test (as a benchmark), four refrigerators equipped with automatic icemakers were tested for ice-making energy use. With the revised test, gross electricity consumption increased about 10% (100kWh/yr) due to automatic icemaking but about 5% (55kWh/yr) could be attributed to the special features of the automatic icemaker. The test also confirmed the feasibility of establishing procedures for measuring energy use of specific loads and other activities related to domestic refrigerators. Field testing and subsequent retesting revealed a 14% increase in energy use.

KEYWORDS: year 1996, refrigerators, freezers, domestic, ice makers, electricity consumption, testing, measuring, comparing, performance

Citation: Symposium Papers, Atlanta, GA, 1996