A release hit my inbox with the title "Optical Refrigerator Defrost Controller Promises Energy Savings for Supermarkets." Although I don't write about supermarkets, the use of an optical sensor to help save energy sounded interesting.
Since 1996, New Avionics has produced high-end ice sensors for specialized applications in aircraft and wind turbines. Now it has a "cool" sensor that uses the optical properties of ice to detect when it builds up on refrigerator coils. Dick Hackmeister, vice president at New Avionics, said the sensor detects changes in the refractive index of materials in a light path, and it can discriminate between clear ice (think of ice cubes) and rime ice, the frosty stuff that forms on ice cream containers and ice cube trays.
This image shows a sensor as it would mount on an arrangement of cooling tubes. It also shows how much rime ice could accumulate on the tubes without a controlled heating cycle.
The Ice*Meister sensor detects ice buildup and turns on the defrost cycle.
The Ice*Meister shines a beam of light across a refrigerator tube to detect the optical properties of moisture and ice on the tube's surface.
Rime ice forms when super-cooled water droplets suspended in air fall on a surface, such as a refrigerator coil, and it creates an insulator that decreases cooling efficiency. Each time you open a refrigerated compartment, a new volume of air and water vapor enters and adds to the rime ice. Many appliances use a simple timer to cycle through an automatic defrost cycle that heats the refrigeration coils enough to sublime the rime ice. But heated refrigeration coils on a timer use energy inefficiently.
The Ice*Meister Model 9734-REFR Optical Defrost Controller detects a buildup of rime ice and turns on the defrost cycle only when needed. The sensor, which mounts directly on a cooling tube, can reduce a large refrigerator's power use by as much as 30 percent, according to Hackmeister. His company specifically aims to help companies that manufacture commercial walk-in refrigerators, reach-in refrigerated display cases, and similar self-defrosting chiller systems that can use a lot of electricity.
Say a kilowatt-hour of electrical energy costs $0.12 for a commercial reach-in refrigerated display case that consumes 2 kilowatts an hour and runs 16 hours a day, 300 days a year. The annual energy consumption comes to 9,600kW, so a 30 percent cost reduction amounts to about $345. Even with smaller savings, the sensor would pay for itself, since it costs $300 in quantity.
Because the Ice*Meister sensor detects ice, it also detects the absence of ice, and it can turn off a refrigerator heater as soon as the rime ice disappears. Thus, in addition to starting a defrost cycle only when needed, the sensor limits the heating cycle to only the time needed to remove the ice. To me, this sounds like an innovative approach to solving an energy-use problem with interesting sensor technology. Hackmeister explained that the technique uses basic high school physics, but someone had to think of how to apply that science to a problem and solve it.
We have a lot of room for other energy-saving sensors and controllers, some of which also will apply basic physics or chemistry. The trick comes in finding the root cause of wasted energy and the proper way to reduce it. Sometimes we look an an interesting device and say, "Why didn't I think of that?" That happened this morning when I read the New Avionics information.
One alternative would be a manually set timer that would be initiated by a person who was able to evaluate the amount of ice, and estimate the time to get rid of it. The problem of course is that it would require human judgement, skill, and accountability, the three things that ISO 9000 seeks to remove from the business environment completely.
A photo sensor does seem like a good idea, although I would want a backup set fpr a less frequent interval for when the sensor system fails periodicaly, which it will, of course. Whart would be quite interesting now is a detailed description of how the frost detector works. Not just a general description, but one that would provide an understanding. Of course, that assumes that the design is adequately protected.
The timer based comment is correct in that there is a minimum time between defrost operations. Home refrigerators with electronic controls base their defrost times on door openings, temperature, humidity and previous defrost cycle time. The calculations that detwermine time between defrosts is based on years of research to discover the maximum time a refrigerator can run efficiently between defrosts coupled with the previously noted information.
The defrost circuit also has a thermal sensor included in the defrost circuit to determine when the coil temperature is above freezing to terminate the defrost operation. I believe this was mentioned in a previous post.
There are other issues involved in defrosting coils such as how long to allow the evaporator to drip to remove water, maximum time to allow a defrost to keep from warming the freezer area, etc.
For years a thermostate has been used to control the icing situation. After a coling cycle the fan is kept on until the thermostate indicate that the temperature is above 32°F, an indication that the coils are ice free. Simple, reliable and not that expencive.
It's not necessarily advanced, more like clever. As far as I know, there's no sensor now in use to detect ice on cooling coils in commercial refrigerators, so something that can do the job and save energy looks like an advancement.
Sure, someone could do something similar with a few bits and pieces and a PIC MCU, but they didn't, right?
Health codes require regular cleaning of commercial refrigerators used for food, so cleaning the sensor would become part of the routine. Also, I bet the sensor calibrates itself so if any dust settles on the coil--unlikely in a closed environment--the sensor calibrates for the small change.
What happens over time? How does the system know the sensor beam path is the same over time?
One sometimes sees air jets used to keep the lenses of optical sensors clear in dusty/dirty environments. What happens in this environment? Is the sensor itself heated to prevent ice or condensation inside the sensor, and to keep the lens clear?
This type of sensor would make sense in commercial refrigeration units rather than in home refrigerators or freezers. The cost would make it too expensive for standard fridges. As a youngster I remember my mother defrosting our refrigerator. The built-up ice would get so thick she would have to put pans of hot water in the open freezer compartment to melt it. Meanwhile the frozen food sat wrapped with ice cubes in newspaper in a dish drainer. It was quite a process. I'm glad we no longer have to do that!
Anyone who has experienced "frozen" coils in an air conditioner understands the need for s frost sensor. The AC continues to run because the room thermostat indicates a high temp. All because insufficient air gets through--or around--the coils. I grew up on the east coast where humid summer air caused a lot of frozen freezer-case problems. --Jon
I would expect the icing varies depending on the amount of moistue in the air. Seems straightforward for an optical sensor to determine the difference between ice and copper tubing for example. ..
Jon, you are definitely right that this is one of those "why didn't I think of that?" inventions. It's hard to believe that, up to now, nobody had come up with anything more than a timer for this application.
Thanks for the introduction to rime ice, Jon. I definitely have seen traces of it in my refrigerators and freezers over the years and now I know what it is!
Sounds like a practical use of sensor technology, which while helping with energy savings might also help reduce the number of service calls related to finding that frozen substance taking over the inside of your fridge. On the other hand, given what we see regularly in The Made for Monkeys column about new appliance train wrecks, I wonder if this is just another high-tech gizmo that complicates matters and sets the appliance up for a less than desired failure rate.
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