Comparison of Energy Consumption of an Inverter-Driven Refrigerator Under DC Operation vs AC Operation – Preliminary Investigation on DC Operability of Whiteware

Energy-efficient whiteware will reduce the power consumption of a household. Reducing the number of power converter stages within a whiteware helps to enhance the efficiency of the system. Modern commercially available inverter-driven whiteware such as a refrigerator, operates internally on a DC bus, allowing direct powering from the DC bus of a renewable energy system. However, the use of an energy storage system is mandatory to buffer the fluctuating nature of renewable energy. This paper presents the comparison of power consumption of a household inverter-driven refrigerator operating from the traditional AC supply, versus a DC supply based on the removal of the front-end rectifier. The refrigerator was also tested for its wider DC operating voltage range so that a supercapacitor module could be used to buffer the fluctuating nature of renewable energy.