PROBLEM 3.

21
KNOWN: Conditions associated with maintaining heated and cooled conditions within a refrigerator compartment. FIND: Coefficient of performance (COP). SCHEMATIC:

ASSUMPTIONS: (1) Steady-state operating conditions, (2) Negligible radiation, (3) Compartment completely sealed from ambient air. ANALYSIS: The Case (a) experiment is performed to determine the overall thermal resistance to heat transfer between the interior of the refrigerator and the ambient air. Applying an energy balance to a control surface about the refrigerator, it follows from Eq. 1.12b that, at any instant, & & E g E out = 0

Hence,

q elec q out = 0 where q out = T,i T,o

)
=

R t . It follows that

q elec 20 W For Case (b), heat transfer from the ambient air to the compartment (the heat load) is balanced by heat transfer to the refrigerant (qin = qout). Hence, the thermal energy transferred from the refrigerator over the 12 hour period is T,i T,o Qout = q out t = qin t = t Rt

Rt =

T,i T,o

( 90 25 )o C

= 3.25o C/W

(12 h 3600 s h ) = 266, 000 J 3.25o C W The coefficient of performance (COP) is therefore Q 266, 000 COP = out = = 2.13 Win 125, 000 COMMENTS: The ideal (Carnot) COP is Tc 278 K COP )ideal = = = 13.9 Th Tc ( 298 278 ) K
Qout =

( 25 5 )o C

<

and the system is operating well below its peak possible performance.