LAUSR

Abstract User interactions with a refrigerating appliance, such as opening doors and insertion of food and drink to be cooled and stored, increase energy consumption. This investigation quantifies the energy impact of user interactions for 235 appliances in homes covering more than 65,000 appliance-days of use. User heat loads are highly variable from day-to-day within a household and are also quite variable across households. A linear mixed model statistical analysis using the number of householders, appliance size, indoor and outdoor ambient air temperatures has been conducted to develop a quantitative model of average sensible and latent heat load resulting from user interactions. A key aspect of user interaction is door openings. Instrumented data collection of door openings in homes for 66 appliances measured over an average of six months have been analysed by household size. A linear regression was conducted and analysis showed that door openings correlate well with user heat loads.