Recovery of waste heat from domestic refrigerator

Refrigeration is a process where the heat moves from low temperature reservoir to high temperature reservoir. Heat which is rejected by the condenser of a refrigerator is of low quality which means the temperature is low. So in this current project an attempt is made to utilize this waste heat from the condenser of a household refrigerator. Though it is impossible to recover the entire energy lost by the waste heat of the refrigerator, this project aims at minimizing the losses and recovery of maximum heat from the system by using experiment performed as in literature and theoretical heat balancing system. This helped in saving of energy as no electricity was used for heating water. The new system has given better performance than the existing one however with few more modifications a better efficiency from the developed system can be achieved. Also it has contributed to energy saving as well as cost saving as both the utilities (refrigeration and heating) are combined in one system. The maximum temperature of the water obtained after 2 hours of continuous operation was 40°C. This water obtained can be utilized for domestic applications like bathing, laundry, cleaning etc. Heat is energy, so energy saving is one of the key matters from view point of fuel consumption and for the protection of global environment. So it is necessary that a significant and concrete effort should be made for conserving energy through waste heat recovery too. The main objective of this paper is to study “Waste Heat recovery system for domestic refrigerator”. An attempt has been made to utilize waste heat from condenser of refrigerator. This heat can be used for number of domestic and industrial purposes. In minimum constructional, maintenance and running cost, this system is much useful for domestic purpose. It is valuable alternative approach to improve overall efficiency and reuse the waste heat. The study has shown that such a system is technically feasible and economically viable.