New type of fridge compressors

[MrCrowley]

Just thought this was interesting to those who use fridge compressors.
These new NZ designed compressors will use a gas lubricant instead of oil. Probably wont benefit us in anyway since we don't use them on closed systems. Apart from that, they're far smaller but seem to perform the same.

After 17 years of top-secret product development, Fisher & Paykel Appliances today unveiled what it says is a major "step change" in refrigeration technology.

Stuart Broadhurst, chief executive of F&P Appliances, says its new compressor technology could become as important to refrigeration as the electric car engine is to the automotive industry.

The new technology has the potential to save consumers up to 30 per cent on refrigerator power use.

"A 30 improvement in energy efficiency is unheard of," says Broadhurst. "In most households, the refrigerator is one of the larger appliance power users and reducing energy consumption is a consistent goal of our product development team."

In addition to being more energy efficient, the new compressor is also significantly smaller than conventional technology, meaning storage capacity in refrigerators can be increased by up to 15 litres.

Fisher & Paykel Appliances has worked closely with specialist Brazilian compressor manufacturer Embraco - owned by US-based Whirlpool Corporation - for the last five years on the project.

The new compressor does not use oil, instead using gas a lubricant, which the company says is more environmentally friendly and allows more flexibility in installation.

F&P Appliances says further field testing and trials will take place in the next few months.

The company hopes its compressor technology will eventually be used by major appliance manufacturers around the world.

"We will have [the compressor] product in the market [in F&P products] this year, but that will be a blind test," said Broadhurst.

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news ... d=10673610

[Matt_NZ]

hmmm, Interesting. Btw look how weird it looks, compared to your normal fridge compressor.




Edit by MrCrowley: No need to quote my whole post.

[POLAND_SPUD]

cool, but as mrcrowley has pointed it won't be very useful for us. Of course unless we find a way to lubricate it and cool it

Oh btw... Do you know that there are battery powered fridges for trucks, yachts and such?
Unfortunately they are usually a bit more expensive than AC compressors and harder to find. But if you find one then you can easily mount it in your car

[MrCrowley]

That was something I was wondering about with these, since they draw 30% less power (I'm not really good with electronics but either they draw 30% less power or require 30% less power to cool the fridge (is there a difference between the two?)), perhaps they can be run off 12v-240v car adapter (inverters?). You can do that already, though I'm not really sure how much power these things need and I know those 12v-240v adapters are bloody expensive at anything like over 300W.

Damn, that was an unorganised post. Basically, will they require less power to run? If so, would it be low enough to run off the basic inverters (300W and below)? I'm not really sure what I'm talking about with inverters either, I just know I have a 300W one which wasn't that expensive and that my friend bought an 800W one which cost him $400NZD and a 2HP compressor probably needs an inverter well over 1000W.

[jrrdw]

Inverters arn't all there cracked up to be. Before buying a inverter know what kind of power you will need then buy the inverter that has at least twice that to get reliebilty. Also they are very very battery draining and will beat up on your cars/trucks alternator in a hurry.

As far as inverters go you get about half of what you pay for...

[Crna Legija]

I got a 600w inverter from bunnings for 1 dollar, because i worked there and it was returned and they were gonna thow it away, all i had to is buy a receipt. i only wanted it to power a ps3 in my bros car when we go camping but it used modified shine wave not true, so the signal interfered with his dvd player and gave a really fuzzy image.

also got a weed cutter like that, its that only good thing about working there. the pay was sh!t

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

Btw look how weird it looks, compared to your normal fridge compressor.

Looks like a compressor foetus

[Technician1002]

Many problems people have with inverters is incorrect installation. I have one in my car and it runs my full size fridge. I used it durring an ice storm to keep the freezer frozen, a few lights, the TV (small one) and the computer running for the weekend.

Many people don't use Ohm's law to find the voltage drop on the low voltage side. When drawing 50-80 amps a hundredth of a ohm can cause low voltage to the inverter when a freezer tries to start and inverter shutdown. I'll post a photo later of an electrical panal I had to replace. While it was replaced, I used the inverter for lights, TV, and the Fridge.

On a normal car, they don't put out full current at idle, so don't load it to full power at idle. The battery will go flat. On a Prius, full power is avaliable at idle.

Instead of getting an oversize inverter, get one with surge capacity of 2X at least for starting motors. Then make sure the primary wire will keep the voltage at the inverter above 11.5 volts during the surge.

I use it with my compressor for field cannon use and I have used it with an electric chain saw to cut a tree down at the far end of my dad's hayfield. It was a little light for the chain saw. An extended heavy cut would trip it off.

My inverter. Note the small black power cord off to the left. It is ~24 inches long to the battery.


EDIT
Added photo of roughing it with the inverter. Electric lights, refrigerator, ran all weekend off a 25 foot extension to the Prius. The 42 watt CF is much brighter than a 2 mantel Coleman. The weekend took about 2 gallons of gas. We had ice cream in the freezer.

[SpudBlaster15]

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[Technician1002]

The energy required to cool the fridge and its contents to a specified temperature is fixed, so if the claimed increase in efficiency is valid, it will draw 30% less electrical power, and also use 30% less electrical power to do the same amount of work.

Sometimes you need to look at the data to find out what the 30% really means. If energy in = energy out (cooling) then the system is 100% efficient except for the box heat leakage, but it still uses power.

The question becomes, does it draw 30% less power for the same work output, or is is 30% more efficient and creating 30% less compressor heat.

Either one is good, but with efficient scroll compressors I have my doubts that it is drawing 30% less power for the same BTU's pumped. To do so would be approaching an over unity efficiency.

I'm thinking it is 30% more efficient, not uses 30% less power. There is a difference. The prior may result in 5% less power drawn.

For more info on this, check the refrigeration section of the Wikipedia article. Also read the Carnot efficiency section.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_efficiency

The up to 30% consumer savings is simply a best case when replacing that ancient round top fridge with a more efficient model with better box insulation, door seals, circulation fans, etc. This is not 30% less power than a modern energy saving fridge.

[SpudBlaster15]

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