Design and Manufacturing of A Dryer Using Waste Heat From A Household Refrigerator

Abstract

In this thesis, the dual use of a heat pump is examined in order to avoid waste of energy and reduce the equipment, volume, and cost used for both cooling food and drying clothes. Energy efficiency in household appliances is very important due to the increasing impact of environmental pollution on natural life, the difficulty of accessing natural resources, and international standards. At the same time, living space saving and program duration are important for user comfort. In this context, the system is designed production-oriented, the concept design calculations were carried out. Then, the performance and efficiency of the system is calculated by applying a series of tests at different configuration and subcomponent positions. The design is drawn via Solidworks 3D design software. Conservation of mass and performance analysis is performed for the designed system. The designed system is dried 320 grams of wetness in 960 grams of wet laundry in 3 hours and 38 minutes and also is increased the the cooling performance of the refrigerator. In addition, with the energy savings achieved in clothes drying process, the cost of the clothes dryer chamber is amortised after 4 years, 11 months and 5 days of use. The biggest advantage of the design is to reduce the energy consumption of the clothes dryer chamber thanks to the usage of waste heat that is drawn from the refrigerator part of the heat pump cycle. On the other hand, the main disadvantage is that the refrigerator and clothes dryer chambers have to be physically nearby, which may require radical changes in the interior architecture design of the houses. However, this disadvantage can be eliminated by new generation house designs that prioritize economic and environmental efficiency, or by designing the compartments where cooling and heating are required (for example, an ice room and clothes drying room can be designed side by side) in the service sector applications such as hotels that require profitability and efficiency. In addition, it can be a solution that transferring cold and hot flows that are taken from the heat pump to the related remote departments despite the losses.