Qualification Labels for Refrigerators Destined to the Developing Countries

Abstract

The refrigerating units distributed in the Overseas and Developing countries present quite often little difference compared with those we find on the Western Hemisphere markets. And thus, the refrigerators frequently appear poorly-adapted facing some specific conditions, among which we may find (high relative humidity, high ambient temperature, some difficulty regarding energy supply, different needs of the consumers). The present study has therefore the aim of proposing a series of labels permitting a comparison of the different refrigerators. For reaching this objective, different selection criteria, specific to these countries have been retained. The steps followed consist in fixing some states of reference with which the different criteria selected are being compared. This comparison results in the eventual awarding of five criteria concerning: consumption, autonomy, cold generation, stability of interior temperature and equipment level of the unit. The whole of these results are being gathered in a sum-up file for each unit. This study has been funded by the French Agency for Energy Management.