Study on Energy Efficiency of an Off-Grid Vending Machine with Compact Heat Exchangers and Low GWP Refrigerant Powered by Solar Energy

Răzvan Calotă, Mihai Savaniu, Alina Girip, Ilinca Năstase, Matei Răzvan Georgescu and Oana Tonciu
Additional contact information
Răzvan Calotă: Department of Thermodynamic Sciences, Faculty of Building Services, Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, 66 Pache Protopopescu Blvd., 020396 Bucharest, Romania
Mihai Savaniu: Department of Thermodynamic Sciences, Faculty of Building Services, Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, 66 Pache Protopopescu Blvd., 020396 Bucharest, Romania
Alina Girip: Department of Thermodynamic Sciences, Faculty of Building Services, Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, 66 Pache Protopopescu Blvd., 020396 Bucharest, Romania
Ilinca Năstase: Department of Thermodynamic Sciences, Faculty of Building Services, Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, 66 Pache Protopopescu Blvd., 020396 Bucharest, Romania
Matei Răzvan Georgescu: Department of Thermodynamic Sciences, Faculty of Building Services, Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, 66 Pache Protopopescu Blvd., 020396 Bucharest, Romania
Oana Tonciu: Department of Thermodynamic Sciences, Faculty of Building Services, Technical University of Civil Engineering Bucharest, 66 Pache Protopopescu Blvd., 020396 Bucharest, Romania

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-26

Abstract: The purpose of this research is to design an energy-efficient off-grid vending machine that has a refrigeration system powered by an environmentally friendly refrigerant. The paper presents details from the equipment’s design phase in terms of the resistance structure, photovoltaic panels area dimensioning, but also in terms of the necessary cooling load to be provided by the refrigeration system. The refrigerant chosen was R290 following a comparative analysis, which showed that it has an efficiency 6.6% higher than R134a. During the monitoring periods, the outdoors temperature varied between −4–28 °C, the relative humidity between 22–100% and yet only a slight indoor temperature variation of ±1.5 °C compared to the set value was recorded. The battery module managed to store enough energy from the photovoltaic panels to keep the vending machine functional through three consecutive days with adverse environmental conditions, as evidenced by the low variation of indoor temperature

Keywords: vending machine; low GWP refrigerant; energy efficiency; solar energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/12/4433/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/12/4433/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:12:p:4433-:d:841699

Access Statistics for this article

Energies is currently edited by Ms. Agatha Cao

More articles in Energies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().