international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

available at www.sciencedirect.com

w w w . i i fi i r . o r g

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/ijrefrig

Thermal analysis of the defrost cycle in a domestic freezer

Pradeep Bansal*, David Fothergill, Ryan Fernandes
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019, Auckland, New Zealand

article info

abstract

Article history:

This paper presents a thermal analysis of a defrost cycle in order to design more efficient

Received 7 January 2009

defrosting mechanisms in household refrigerators and freezers. A simple heat transfer

Received in revised form

model has been developed to determine energy flows from a defrost heater across various

18 November 2009

components of a refrigerator/freezer. The study measures power consumption and

Accepted 30 November 2009

temperatures of a single temperature vertical empty freezer (in normal operation with and

Available online 13 January 2010

without defrosts) to determine the heat distribution from the radiant type electric defrost
heater and its effect on power consumption. The surface temperature of the defrost heater

Keywords:

was measured to be 520  C for minimal frost and 560  C for heavy frost. The efficiency of

Refrigerator-freezer

a defrost heater was measured to be 30.3%, while power consumption of the freezer was

Calculation

found to increase by 17.7% due to automatic defrost.

2009 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.

Heat transfer
Defrosting
Experiment
Efficiency
Energy consumption

Analyse thermique du cycle de degivrage dun congelateur

domestique
Mots cles : Refrigerateur-congelateur ; Calcul ; Transfert de chaleur ; Degivrage ; Experimentation ; Efficacite ; Consommation denergie

1.

Introduction

The energy efficiency of household refrigerators and freezers

is receiving considerable attention since these can account for
up to 11% of household energy costs (GSA, 2008). Todays
refrigerators come with advanced electronics and intelligent
features, and hence are more sophisticated and energy efficient. New technologies are continually being discovered and

developed to improve the performance of the system (e.g.

door alarms, temperature sensors). Young (2008) found that
over the last two decades the efficiencies of 620 L fridge
freezers have increased by 150% in the USA. There has been an
interest and drive by government bodies internationally to
increase the efficiency of modern appliances and electronics,
and a promotion of the use of energy efficient products in
recent years. Manufacturers of household products are

* Corresponding author. Tel.: 64 9 373 7599x88176; fax: 64 9 373 7479.

E-mail address: p.bansal@auckland.ac.nz (P. Bansal).
0140-7007/$ see front matter 2009 Elsevier Ltd and IIR. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.ijrefrig.2009.11.012

590

international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

Qdefrost
Ra
R
T
DT
Dt
t
U
3
h
s

Nomenclature
A
Cp
F
H
M
Nu
Pr
Q_
Qmelt
Qlosses

area (m )
specific heat (J kg1 K1)
view factor
enthalpy (J kg1)
mass (kg)
Nusselt number
Prandtl number
rate of heat transfer (W)
energy required to melt the frost (J)
losses in the defrost process (J)

gearing up to improve the efficiencies of their products so that

they can be more competitive in the market. Energy ratings
stickers are put on appliances displaying their power
consumption. This is a key decision making factor that
consumers look for when purchasing new appliances. The
energy consumption figures for energy ratings are determined
by testing the appliance to the relevant standard (Bansal, 2003)
of that country.
Frost free household refrigerators and freezers have automatic mechanism (Bansal and Xie, 1999) to remove frost
before it noticeably degrades their performance. This mechanism is usually an electric radiation-type heater that is
controlled by a timer and a thermostat to periodically melt the
frost. The heat required to melt the frost can be determined by
the amount of frost on the evaporator and its temperature.
Zakrzewski (1984) defined the efficiency of a defrost process in
terms of the energy required to melt the frost Qmelt, and the
total energy input, including heat losses during defrost
(Qlosses), by the following correlation:

Qmelt

Qdefrost Qmelt Qlosses

!
i

(1)

Although these systems have been used and researched in

the industry (Radcenco et al., 1995; Inan et al., 2002; Tudor
et al., 2005; Ozkan and Ozil, 2006; Tso et al., 2006) for a number
of years, there is still not enough information available in the
open literature about heat transfer effectiveness, energy flows
and the effect of defrost on the power consumption of
domestic refrigerator/freezers. This paper, therefore,
uncovers the physics of the defrost process in domestic
refrigerators by developing a simple heat transfer model to
quantify the resultant energy consumption as a result of
defrosting, and investigate how this energy gets dissipated in
various parts of the freezer beyond the evaporator. The theory
was supplemented by in-depth experiments performed on
a single temperature empty vertical freezer with an electric
radiation-type defrost heater (in normal operation with and
without defrosts). The specific objectives of the study were to
have better fundamental understanding of the defrost cycles,
to analyse the heat distribution from a defrost heater in the
freezer space, and to quantify the effects of the defrost cycle
on the power consumption of the freezer.

total energy input for defrosting (J)

Raleigh number
thermal resistance (K W1)
temperature (K)
temperature difference (K)
time interval (s)
time (s)
overall heat transfer coefficient (W m2 K1)
emissivity
Defrost efficiency
Stefan Boltmann constant

2.
Heat transfer modelling of the freezer
system
Modelling the freezer system will determine the heat loads
within the system, identify the sources and the distribution of
these loads within the system, and compare the effects of
different defrost conditions on the freezer. Heat entering into
the system is absorbed by the components in the freezer, such
as the shelves, metal lining, internal air and the evaporator. In
steady state, this heat gain must be equal to the heat removed
by the refrigeration system during the compressor on cycle.
A simple heat transfer model of the system has been developed in Engineering Equation Solver (EES, 2008) to calculate
various heat transfer components of the process (Fernandes,
2008). The system was a vertical single temperature upright
freezer with a gross volume of 308 L and was charged with
105 g of refrigerant 134a. The radiant defrost electric heater
was rated to 450 W. The fin and tube evaporator was a two
tube and eight pass, sizing 500 mm, 255 mm and 60 mm
width, height and depth respectively. The fin and tube surface
area was 1.8 m2. The evaporator was covered from the main
cabinet with an opening below the evaporator and heater. The
re-circulated air hit the heater first, before the evaporator.

2.1.

Assumptions

The following assumptions were made in modelling the

freezer system to simplify the problem and minimise the
number of measurements to be taken:
 The freezer system is symmetrical, i.e. the temperature on
one wall is equal to the temperature on the opposite wall.
This assumption is also made for the evaporator where
temperatures on the left and right are assumed equal.
 The growth of frost is uniform and constant on all parts of
the evaporator.
 The rate of power consumed is the average power of the
cycle.
 The defrost heater temperature is its average temperature
in steady state.
 The heat loads of the system are determined only during the
off cycle.

591

international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

 During defrost, natural convection as a result of heater

surface temperature only affects the evaporator and frost on
it, and not other components.
 The emissivity of the radiant heater and the evaporator are
respectively 0.85 and 0.07 (The Engineering Toolbox, 2009).
The emissivity of the evaporator does not change with the
amount of frost. The emissivity of the evaporator is
considered due to its close proximity to the heater and any
frost at the lower part of the evaporator would melt quickly.

2.2.

Heat transfer from ambient to the freezer

Heat transfer from ambient into the freezer occurs through

walls, door and seals of the freezer due to the temperature
difference of about 40  C between freezer inside (about 20  C)
and the outside environment (about 20  C). For convective
heat transfer, the Nusselt (Nu) number of a vertical plate has
been evaluated, following Churchill and Chu (1975a), as
a function of Raleigh and Prandtl numbers in Eq. (2):
32

7
6
0:387,Ra1=6
Nu 6

9=16 o8=27 7
5
40:825 n
1 0:492
Pr

2.3.

(2)

Heat gain within the freezer

The rate of heat transfer entering the freezer control volume

from the outside will be distributed among the various
components within the freezer, such as the freezer shelves,
the sheet-metal lining and the evaporator surface, and can be
given by:
Q_

2.4.



m,Cp ,DT
Dt

(3)

Fig. 2 Evaporator without cover.

radiation, and the remaining to convection. With the heater

being placed at the bottom of the evaporator (Figs. 1 and 2), the
amount of radiation emitted towards the evaporator enables
the determination of heater effectiveness. The heat directed
towards the side walls is waste heat. The heat directed
downwards towards the drain is not all waste as this prevents
the melted water, after defrost, from freezing and blocking the
drain. The natural convection from the heater is calculated
similarly to the heat transfer through the wall, except that the
Nusselt number, Churchill and Chu (1975b), correlation for
a horizontal cylinder, and the length, l, in the Grashof number
are replaced by the diameter of the heater d. The Nusselt
correlation is only valid for Ra  1012.
2

32

6
7
0:387,Ra1=6
Nu 6

9=16 o8=27 7
40:6 n
5
1 0:559
Pr

(4)

Defrost heater modelling

The majority of the defrost electric energy (at high heater

surface temperatures of around 550  C) is converted to

Fig. 3 shows the radiation network for the defrost heater,

where radiation exchange between components 2, 3, 4 and 5 is
assumed to be negligible. The sum of the heat energy received

Fig. 1 Defrost heater and evaporator cross-sectional view inside the evaporator enclosure. Left, model; right, actual (mm).

592

international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

significant amount (39.8%) of the radiation emitted by the

heater is directed towards the evaporator. The drain receives
25%, while the remaining radiation is directed at the evaporator cover and the back wall.
The net rate of heat transfer from radiation, between the
heater surface (at temperature Ti550  C) and each individual
surrounding surface (at temperature Tj40  C) can be calculated following Oppenheim (1956) as:

Q_ i/j

Fig. 3 Radiation network diagram.

by the surfaces should be equal to the energy entering the

heater. In order to determine the direction of the heat transfer
between two surfaces i and j, thermal resistances in the radiation network can be calculated as the surface resistance by
Eq. (5), and the resistance due to radiation view factor by Eq. (6):

Ri

1  3i
Ai ,3i

(5)

1
Ai ,Fi/j

Ri/j

The total radiation heat transfer from the heater can be

found by the summation of Eq. (8). The temperature of the
surrounding surfaces was measured during a normal defrost.
For simplicity the average value of 40  C was used in thermal
modelling.
It can be observed from the resulting rate of heat transfer
(as given in Table 2) that only 32% of the total heat from the
heater is utilised in heating the evaporator and frost, while the
remaining heat is wasted to heat up the surrounding
components increasing the cooling load of the freezer. Interestingly the amount of heat received by the evaporator is less
than the view factor towards the evaporator. Table 2 shows
the calculated values from the model to each component in
the evaporator enclosure.
Knowing the rate of heat transfer to the evaporator and the
amount of frost on the evaporator, the time to melt the frost
(in minutes) can be calculated from:
(
tdefrost

)
mfrost , Cp;frost ,DT hfusion;frost
60,Q_ heater to evaporator

(9)

For the evaporator temperature of 20  C, the defrost time

would be 22 min.

(6)

F1/3;4

(8)

Ri Ri/j Rj

where 3i and Ai are respectively the emissivity and area of the

surface. This determines whether the surface is emitting or
absorbing radiation. The view factors for radiation from the
circular heater to the surroundings are calculated following
Bejan and Kraus (2003), as:
F1/2;3



s, T4i  T4j



1 
tan1 b1  tan1 b2
2p


1  2,F1/2;3
2

(7)

3.

Experimental procedure

For experimental work, a vertical freezer was chosen with

fixed operating temperature and a simple operation cycle,
where a fan blows the air over the evaporator. The freezer was
modified by adding a switch to the control box allowing the
freezer defrost heater to run internally or be controlled
externally. The external switch prevents the freezer control
box from initiating the defrost cycle, thus allowing the manual
start of the defrost heater. T-type thermocouples were placed
evenly around the freezer, as shown in Fig. 4, to measure the

where b1 and b2 relate how the surfaces are oriented. Using Eq.
(7), the values for view factors are shown in Table 1. A
Table 2 Heat transfer from defrost heater to freezer
components.
Table 1 View factors of radiation emitted from the
heater.
Direction of view factors
F1/2
F1/3
F1/4
F1/5

(heater
(heater
(heater
(heater

to
to
to
to

evaporator)
drain)
cover)
back)

View factor
0.3976
0.25
0.1762
0.1762

Freezer components
Heater to drain (radiation)
Heater to back wall and cover (radiation)
Natural convection
Heater to evaporator/frost (radiation)
Total heat from heater to freezer internals
Total heat from heater to the evaporator

Heat transfer rate

(W)
161.8
147.7
109.9
33.6
453
143.5

international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

593

Fig. 4 Thermocouple placement on the evaporator (left) and the freezer (right).

temperatures of the internal and external walls and the

internal air. On each wall two thermocouples were placed in
the centre of the walls and a third from the top and bottom.
These measurements were used for calculating the heat
transfer rates. Five T-type thermocouple pairs (exposed and
insulated) measured the evaporator surface temperatures
during defrost. The exposed thermocouples were very sensitive to the changes in the defrost heater temperature, while
the insulated thermocouples showed gradual temperature
increases. The thermocouples were placed on the left hand
side of the evaporator, as it was assumed that the heat
distribution from the heater is symmetrical. A separate K-type
thermocouple was used to measure the heater surface
temperature. The thermocouples were calibrated during the
temperature range from 30  C to 40  C to within 0.1  C
accuracy.
Freezer air temperatures were measured using thermocouples inserted into a brass mass to collect an even
temperature change with minimal fluctuation. Thermocouples in the evaporator were inserted into an aluminium
tube with spacers used to stop it from touching the
aluminium. This shielded the thermocouple from the radiation from the defrost heater, allowing a proper temperature measurement to be taken. Wall temperatures were
measured by sticking the thermocouples to the wall with
foil tape.

3.1.

Humidification of the freezer

3.1.1.

Methodology and equipment

To measure the effectiveness of the defrost heater as well, as

to show the effects of a frosted evaporator on the power
consumption of the freezer, a humidification procedure had to
be developed. The device used for humidification consisted of
two sponges wrapped over element heaters, which had
a specific amount of water poured over them. This device was

then put inside the freezer and the freezer allowed to run as
normal. This device was assisted by three auxiliary heaters
placed inside the freezer. These heaters regulated the
temperature inside the freezer compartment so that the
evaporated water from the humidification device did not
condense on the freezer walls and could safely be assumed to
only cause frost to form on the evaporator.

3.2.

Power consumption tests

The purpose of the tests was to measure the power

consumption of the freezer for a prolonged period of time and
for different operating parameters, e.g. for an empty freezer in
normal operation with no defrost, normal operation with
automatic defrost and humidification with and without
defrost. The humidification tests consisted of frosting the
evaporating 500 g of water into the freezer. The conditions for
the test included the following:
 Ambient temperature at 20  C, and relative humidity of 65%
 Empty freezer no mass packs, but one wire shelf for
placing thermocouples.

3.3.

Defrost effectiveness test

This test is used to quantify the effectiveness of the defrost

heater in a given freezer. The test involves humidifying the
freezer with 500 g of water, letting the freezer reach a steady
state of operation, initiating a defrost for 22 min after which
returning the freezer back to normal operation. This simulates a typical defrost function. The conditions for the test
are similar to the power consumption test, but there are
more components in the freezer like the auxiliary heaters
and the humidifier. The test will be initiated in the following
order:

594

international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

1. Set air inside the environmental chamber at 20  C and 65%

relative humidity
2. Open the freezer and let it normalise to ambient
conditions
3. Add 500 g of water to the humidifier
4. Once normalised (i.e. freezer temperature is 20  C), close
the freezer doors, and wait for 2 min to start the freezer
5. Set the auxiliary heater power
6. Start freezer, auxiliary heaters and humidifier
7. After the humidifier switches off, switch off auxiliary
heaters
8. Run the freezer for 12 h period
9. Start defrost, turn off freezer for 22 min, and collect the
melted water
10. Wait for 2 min and turn the freezer back on

Table 4 Minimum and maximum measured values.

Minimum
Freezer air
temperature
External side wall
temperature
External back wall
temperature
Internal side wall
temperature
Drain temperature
On time
Off time
On cycle power
consumed

4.2.

4.

Results and discussion

4.1.

Refrigeration cycles

The power consumption test for normal operation with

defrost was conducted first to gather information regarding
the refrigeration system, e.g. freezer cycles, system temperatures, cycle times and power consumption during the operation. The average time and temperatures measured over the
24 h period are given in Table 3. The internal freezer temperatures are higher than the freezer air (20.3  C), while the
freezer external wall temperatures are higher than the
ambient 20  C due to a hotwall condenser (Bansal and Chin,
2003) being placed inside the freezer walls. The average
evaporator temperature is only 3.3  C lower than the freezer
air temperature. For a freezer, this indicates that within
14 min and 26 s the freezer temperature increases to the
maximum allowable temperature of 17  C for normal
operation.
As shown in Table 4, the freezer air temperature reaches
maximum (4.1  C) soon after the defrost cycle, while the
corresponding drain and wall temperatures reach 47.5  C and
2  C respectively. The power consumption values in Table 4
are the average values during a cycle, while the power value
during a defrost cycle is the maximum power consumed by
the freezer.

Table 3 Measured average temperatures of the freezer

over a 24 h period.
Compressor case
38.4  C
temperature
Ambient temperature 20.0  C

23.6  C

External side wall

temperature
External door
temperature
External back wall
temperature
On time
Power consumed

17.6  C

Evaporator
temperature
Freezer air
temperature
Internal side
21.8  C
wall temperature
19.2  C
Internal door
temperature
Drain
21.9  C
temperature
13 min 17 s Off time
51.8 W
Defrost time

Maximum


20.3 C
18.3  C
17.0  C
20.5  C
22.4  C
2 min 00 s
1 min 30 s
100 W

Freezer air
temperature
External side
wall temperature
External back
wall temperature
Internal side
wall temperature
Drain temperature
On time
Off time
Defrost power
consumed

4.1  C
29.9  C
30.2  C
2 C
47.5  C
59 min 00 s
17 min 00 s
480.2 W

Heat transfer without defrost

Heat infiltration into the freezer, as determined by the heat

transfer model (as explained in Section 2), is given in Table 5.
These are based on the measured freezer temperatures during
the off cycle as inputs. It is interesting to note from Table 5
that the heat infiltration rate through the door seals is the
highest among all components.
The data for heat gain by the freezer components, based on
the heat transfer model (Table 5), agrees with the calculated
heat gain from measured system temperatures over time
(Table 6) to within 9.5% (i.e. a discrepancy of 3.8 W). This is an
excellent agreement, where the discrepancy may be due to the
heat absorbed by the internal plastics.

4.3.

Power consumption tests

4.3.1.

No defrost

Power consumption tests were conducted for three empty

freezer operations: normal operation, normal operation
without defrost and 500 g of frost on evaporator with and
without defrost, and power consumption was measured for
steady state operation over a 24 h period. Figs. 5 and 6 are the
photos taken of the evaporator during tests. The frost growth
is greater at the bottom rows of the evaporator for the 500 g of
frost, while for normal operation with minimal frost (Fig. 5) is
evenly distributed across the evaporator. For normal operation without defrost the yearly power consumption is
412 kWh, while the annual power consumption of a frosted
evaporator is 532 kWh. As expected, the power consumption
in Fig. 7 shows that the normal operation with no defrost
consumes the least amount of power. This is due to shorter

20.3  C

18.2  C
18.7  C
14 min 26 s
11 min 47 s

Table 5 Calculated heat infiltration into the freezer

during compressor off cycle.
Heat transfer through walls
Side walls
Door seals
Door
Back wall including compressor step
Total

Heat transfer rate (W)

12.1
16.4
6.2
5.3
40

international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

595

Table 6 Calculated heat gain within the system as

a result of infiltration.
Heat gain within the system

Heat transfer rate (W)

Evaporator
Freezer air
Metal linings including shelf
Total heat infiltrated into freezer

9.5
0.3
26.4
37.2

on cycle times, while still maintaining off cycle times (of

around 15 min) comparable to other tests (Fig. 8). Normal
operation with the defrost data set does not contain a defrost
cycle, thus providing good comparison against other data sets
which are for on and off cycles only. The power consumption for defrosting normal operations is (13 W) 17.7% higher
than normal operation with no defrost due to the heavy frost
build up on the evaporator (Figs. 6 and 7).

4.3.2.

Fig. 6 Heavy frost (500 g frost test).

Effect of defrost on power consumption

Frost growth on the evaporator degrades its thermal performance, and hence defrosting is necessary. However,
defrosting the evaporator adds heat into the system, thereby
resulting in a longer compressor on cycle as can be seen in
Fig. 8. Fig. 8 displays a comparison between the normal
operation of the freezer with and without a defrost cycle. The
average on cycle time (Fig. 8, top graph) for no defrost is
about 15 min, while after the defrost, the cycle has a much
longer on time of about 1 h (Fig. 8, bottom graph). The power
consumed during a normal operation including a defrost
cycle for a 24 h period is 1.26 kWh, which is higher than the
normal operations without a defrost. An automatic defrost of
an evaporator with 500 g of frost is 25 min 30 s and the
following on cycle of 80 min consumes a total of 0.32 kWh of
power. The power consumption before defrost was 1.46 kWh
per day (532.9 kWh per annum). The power consumption
after defrost for the test was 1.28 kWh (467.2 kWh per
annum).
Fig. 9 illustrates the on cycle times following a defrost
cycle for the normal operation test without addition of
water. The average on cycle time after defrost was
54.6 min, while for the normal freezer operation it was
11.8 min, thus suggesting that the freezer needs 66.4 min to

defrost the evaporator before returning to its regular on/off

cycle.

4.4.

Defrost effectiveness

4.4.1.

Heater temperature

Fig. 10 illustrates the temperature of the defrost heater relative to the freezer air for a defrost cycle. When the heater is
turned on, the defrost heater temperature reaches its steady
state value of 560  C within 5 min. Over the entire defrost
cycle, the temperature of the freezer air increases by only 6  C
despite the temperature around the heater being higher than
40  C. The heater temperature is higher with heavy frost
(560  C) on the evaporator than minimal frost (520  C) due to
partial blockage of the air flow, resulting in the lower heat
transfer coefficient (U ).
Eq. (10) shows that to maintain the same heat flow rate
with a lower heat transfer coefficient, the temperature
difference must increase since the change in surface area of
the evaporator due to the frost is negligible.
Q_ U,A,DT

4.4.2.

Fig. 5 Frost build up during normal operation.

(10)

Evaporator temperatures

The evaporator temperatures during defrosting with

minimal frost and with 500 g of frost are shown in Fig. 11. The
respective defrost times for the 500 g frost and minimal frost
test are 22 min and 10 min. It can be seen that the temperature of the bottom row of the evaporator (with minimal
defrost) which is closest to the heater, increases very quickly
from below 20  C to under 60  C in 5 min. The temperature
rise for the initial 5 min is the same for both tests, and then
the bottom row of the evaporator with minimal frost gradually increases to its maximum temperature of 66  C just
when the heater was switched off. The frosted evaporator
reaches maximum temperatures 15 min into defrost, reaching 100  C and steadily declining after that. The drops in
temperature during defrost are due to streams of melting
water from above cooling local zones where the thermocouples were placed. Fig. 12 displays the temperatures
measured at the top row of the evaporator, where the

596

international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

Fig. 7 Power consumption from different operations during a steady state on/off cycle.

Fig. 8 Normal operation and defrost power cycle.

597

international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

Fig. 9 Following on cycle after defrost.

temperature rise is significantly slower than that for the

bottom row. This is due to the distance from the heater as
well as frost in between the heater and the top row. The top
row temperature peaks after defrost has turned off, similar to
the freezer air temperature.

4.4.3.

Fig. 11 Temperatures from the bottom row of evaporator

during defrost.

for. This is a very satisfactory energy balance across the

system, which could be further improved by adding scope to
the model for temperature measurement in the ducts above
the evaporator and fan where this heat is most likely
absorbed.

Heat gain during a defrost cycle

Table 6 compares the total heat absorbed by the freezer

components to the total heat added into the freezer from the
defrost heater as well as through heat infiltration for 20 min.
The heat input component is calculated from the power
readings of the freezer, while heat absorbed is calculated
from the temperature change in the freezer components.
Data reveals that (i) only 28% of the total heat goes into
melting the frost and 10% towards heating the melted water
to 30  C exiting the drain, (ii) an insignificant amount of
energy goes to heating up the freezer air, (iii) the evaporator
absorbs 11% of the total energy in the system with the
majority coming from the heater, (iv) 43% of the heat during
defrost is absorbed by various freezer components, while (v)
only 8% of the heat input within the system is unaccounted

Fig. 10 Freezer air temperature relative to heater

temperature.

4.4.4.

Defrost efficiency

The efficiency of the defrost heater for the upright freezer was
calculated to be 30.3% by Eq. (11):
h
Qdefrost

Qmelt
Qmelt Qlosses

!
i

171:4 kJ
30:3%
566:2 kJ

(11)

where Qmelt is the theoretical heat required to melt 500 g of

frost and Qlosses is the calculated energy absorbed by freezer
components not critical to defrosting.
This value is similar to the theoretical percentage of heat
from the heater directed towards the evaporator. Table 7
shows the calculated heat gains in the system from measured
temperatures during defrost.

Fig. 12 Temperatures from the top row of evaporator

during defrost.

598

international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

Table 7 Calculated heat gains by the freezer components

during defrost.
Components

Total heat transferred (kJ)

Heat input to the system

Heater
Heat transfer through walls
Total heat input to the freezer
Heat absorbed by various components
Evaporator
Evaporator cover
Freezer air
Heat to melt frost
Heating water
Auxiliary heaters
Freezer shelves
Defrost heater
Metal linings
Drain plastic
Total heat absorbed

4.4.5.

566.2
48
614.2
67.2
26.4
1.7
171.4
57.6
23.3
20
51.6
51.4
93.8
564.4

Defrost melting comparison

The theoretical time to defrost 500 g of frost, using Eq. (9),

was calculated to be 22 min. This time was compared with
the experimental time to defrost 500 g of frost by measuring
the actual amount of melted water. After defrosting, an
average 425 g of water was collected as against the expected
amount of 500 g. It was observed after the defrost tests that
there was still frost on the upper sections of the evaporator
and water droplets on the fins and tube of the evaporator. A
key observation made during the defrost tests was that
some of the melted water dropping from the evaporator
contacts the heater and evaporates. The water evaporating
absorbs heat energy and reintroduces moisture back into
the system.

5.

Conclusions and recommendations

The study analyses the energy flow distribution of defrost heat

into the freezer space and quantifies the effects of the defrost
cycle on the power consumption of the freezer. From the
results of this research, the following conclusions can be
drawn:
 The comparison between minimal frost and 500 g frost
shows that under normal usage conditions i.e. introduction of moisture into the system via door opening and
regularly taking items in and out of the freezer less energy
will be consumed when an automatic defrosting mechanism is integrated into the freezer operation.
 The defrost heater testing shows that a radiant defrost
heater is perhaps not the best option to use. The temperatures that the radiant heater reaches are unnecessarily high
for the purpose of melting the frost on the evaporator. Also,
the majority of people would not expect to find an element
that reaches temperatures in excess of 500  C in their
freezer. This could be considered as a safety issue.
The defrosting process should be investigated further in
order to improve its efficiency. This study has shown that

a freezer with 500 g frost and normal defrost cycle will

consume respectively about 30% and 17.7% more energy to
melt the frost than with minimal frost. Because the energy
saving is only 12.3%, there is still room for improvement in
this area. Two options to consider are:
 Embedding a heater into the evaporator itself which uses
less energy and operates at lower temperatures. This would
have more direct contact with the frost and will have the
effect of less radiated energy to the other freezer
components.
 Reverse cycle defrost is often used in heat pumps, which could
also be investigated in domestic freezers. This may result in
higher energy efficiency of the overall defrost process.

references

Bansal, P.K., 2003. Developing new test procedures for domestic

refrigerators: harmonisation issues and future R&D needs
a review. International Journal of Refrigeration 26 (7), 735748.
Bansal, P.K., Chin, T., 2003. Heat transfer characteristics of wireand-tube and hot wall condensers. International Journal of
HVAC&R 9 (3), 277290.
Bansal, P.K., Xie, G., 1999. A simulation model for evaporation of
defrosted water in domestic refrigerators. International
Journal of Refrigeration 22 (4), 319333.
Bejan, A., Kraus, A.D., 2003. Heat Transfer Handbook. John Wiley
& Sons, New York.
Churchill, S.W., Chu, H.S., 1975a. Correlating equations for
laminar and turbulent free convection from a vertical plate.
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 18 (11),
13231329.
Churchill, S.W., Chu, H.S., 1975b. Correlating equations for
laminar and turbulent free convection from a horizontal
cylinder. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 18
(9), 10491053.
EES, 2008. Engineering Equation Solver. f-Chart Software,
Wisconsin, USA.
Fernandes, R., 2008. Thermal Analysis of the Defrost Cycle in
a Domestic Freezer. Part 4 Research Report (ME-19).
Department of Mechanical Engineering, The University of
Auckland.
GSA, March 12, 2008. Refrigeration and Freezing. Government of
South Australia, Department for Transport, Energy and
Infrastructure. http://www.dtei.sa.gov.au/energy/energy_
action/household/saving_energy/refrigeration_and_freezing
[Online].
Inan, C., Egrican, N., Bullard, C., Newell, T., 2002. Moisture
transport in domestic refrigerators. ASHRAE Transactions 108
(1) Paper no. AC-02-11-1.
Oppenheim, A.K., 1956. Radiation analysis by the network
method. Transactions of the ASME 78, 725735.
Ozkan, D.B., Ozil, E., 2006. Experimental study on the effect of
frost parameters on domestic refrigerator finned tube
evaporator coils. Applied Thermal Engineering, 24902493.
Radcenco, V., Vargas, J.V.C., Bejan, A., Lim, J.S., 1995. Two design
aspects of defrosting refrigerators. International Journal of
Refrigeration, 7686.
The Engineering Toolbox, July 20, 2009. Emissivity Coefficients of
Some Common Materials [Online]. http://www.engineering
toolbox.com/emissivity-coefficients-d_447.html.
Tso, C.P., Cheng, Y.C., Lai, A.C.K., 2006. An improved model for
predicting performance of finned tube heat exchanger under

international journal of refrigeration 33 (2010) 589599

frosting condition, with frost thickness variation across fin.

Applied Thermal Engineering, 111120.
Tudor, V., Ohadi, M., Salehi, M.A., Lawler, J.V., 2005. Advances in
control of frost on evaporator coils with an applied electric field.
International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer, 44284434.

599

Young, D., 2008. When do energy-efficient appliances generate

energy savings? Some evidence from Canada. Energy Policy 36,
3446.
Zakrzewski, B., 1984. Optimal defrost cycle for the air cooler.
International Journal of Refrigeration 7, 4145.