Japanese refrigerators field testing

摘要

Residential refrigerators consume the equivalent of 1700 megawatts (MW) of baseload power in the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) service area. Japanese manufacturers have designed refrigerator units that appear more energy efficient than some currently available American models. This report summarizes preliminary findings from field testing of 12 refrigerators of Japanese manufacture to evaluate annual kilowatt hour (kWh) use during actual operation. The units have also undergone laboratory testing sponsored by BPA at ETL Testing Laboratories, Inc. in Cortland, New York. A final report of the project -- due at the end of 1989 -- will correlate in detail the results of field and laboratory tests in comparison to performance ratings determined by the manufacturer.