FABRICATION OF COMBO REFRIGERATOR

Abstract

Refrigeration is one of the most significant technologies for food preservation, medical storage, and comfort cooling. The present study focuses on the design and fabrication of a combo refrigerator, which combines two cooling techniques—vapor compression refrigeration (VCR) and thermoelectric (Peltier) cooling—in a single integrated system. The combo refrigerator is designed to function as both a freezer and beverage cooler using a shared compressor system and a supplementary thermoelectric cooling unit. The hybrid design allows selective operation depending on temperature requirements, optimizing energy consumption. The fabricated model achieved a minimum temperature of −12°C in the freezer and 10°C in the thermoelectric compartment with an average COP of 2.8. The study concludes that hybrid cooling integration significantly improves versatility and energy efficiency compared to conventional single-mode refrigerators.