Efficiency analysis of home refrigerators by replacing hydrocarbon refrigerants

The investigation aims to apply the mixture of hydrocarbon refrigerants, R-290 and R-600a with each 50% component ratio, instead of the refrigerant R-134a for home refrigerators. The hydrocarbon refrigerants of R-290 and R-600a are friendly for environmental protection and have good refrigerating behavior in comparison with CFCs, HCFs, or HFCs refrigerants. The experiments used a 440-L capacity home refrigerator as test facility, which officially works with 150g R-134a refrigerant. During test the official R-134a refrigerant was replaced by varied mass hydrocarbon refrigerant, which was mixed by R-290 and R-600a with each 50% component ratio. The results show that refrigerating effect is improved by using hydrocarbon refrigerant. Moreover, the total consumed energy is saved 4.4% and applied mass of refrigerant is reduced 40%.