Abstract
This study shows the experimental comparison
between a commercial vapor compression refrigerator and a
laboratory built thermoelectric beverage cooler. Tests were
carried out to determine the time taken for the temperature of
325 ml of water in a glass jar to be reduced from 32oC to below
6oC. The result shows that in the freezer compartment of the
commercial refrigerator, the temperature of the water decreased
linearly with increasing time. However, for the thermoelectric
refrigerator, the water temperature decreased exponentially with
increasing time. In other words, cooling rate for the refrigerator
was constant while for the thermoelectric it decreased
exponentially. The study also shows that that in the freezer
compartment of the commercial refrigerator the water took 61
min to cool to 6°C while the thermoelectric beverage cooler took
69 min. It can be seen that for the majority of the cooling time,
the thermoelectric refrigerator was cooling at a faster rate than
the commercial refrigerator.