Gandhinagar institute designs fridge for use in winter too

With summer setting in there is no better way to quench your thirst with a glass of chilled water! Now here's a refrigerator that gives you cold - and nearly 50 litres of lukewarm water to wash utensils in winter!

If this concept seems like a joke, then a professor-student of Gandhinagar Institute of Technology (GIT) will prove you wrong.  Director of GIT, Dr Nilesh M Bhatt has come up with an innovative refrigerator design that provides both cold and lukewarm water.

The device has been invented in a bid to utilize the energy and the heat that the refrigerator gives out. The proposed model of the 'refrigerator-cum-water heater' will work by using the heat given out by the condenser for generating warm water. In the experiment, Prof Bhatt said that to generate lukewarm water, a water refrigerant heat exchanger (water cooler condenser) needs to be designed and has to be incorporated in the refrigerant circuits.

"The concept is to incorporate storage type water heater with domestic refrigerator. Hence the water cooler condenser is made of stainless steel tank and is brazed with copper coil thereon. It is designed in such a way that it incorporates the series of the existing air cooler condenser. The storage tank capacity is 50 litres and will be placed at the head of the refrigerator," he said.

After a gap of 6 to 8 hours, the water kept in the tank would be warm at around 40-45 degree Celsius. This water could be used for household chores. "Daily 100 litres of lukewarm water can be produced When the water cooler condenser is in action, the cooling capacity was increased by about 20%, while the power consumption can be reduced by about the same magnitude," he states.

The device will cost around Rs 3,500. But mass production will bring down the price. "With the present cost of LPG for domestic purpose (Rs 30/kg), the modification will allow monthly saving of Rs 150. Compared to electric water heater, there will be a monthly saving of Rs. 300. Thus the simple payback period compared to LPG heating is 2 years and electric heating is about 1 year. This can be reduced further if the carbon credit earned due to energy saving is considered," he said.