提高家用电冰箱的效率对于实现节能住宅的努力具有重要作用。美国能源部最近的分析显示，家用冰箱和冷冻柜占美国普通家庭现场能耗的4.7%。之前在冰箱能效改进方面的研究包括高性能压缩机、变速压缩机、超大换热器、更好的绝缘、气体膨胀期间的工作恢复，以及需求控制管理。 在本文中，我们研究了一种新型的换热器，它具有减小尺寸和改善霜处理的潜力。这些属性可能会对内部和外部体积比以及总体能耗的降低产生重大影响。空气轴承换热器也称为旋转换热器，最初由桑迪亚国家实验室开发，用作高性能冷却器。他们的设备最初应用于电子和高功率密度冷却应用领域。 本文提出的工作采用了空气轴承换热器作为一种潜在的替代品，以取代目前在传统冰箱和冷冻柜中使用的铝翅片管蒸发器。研究发现，由于旋转翅片产生的离心力，霜会以薄层的形式生长，并在几秒钟内解冻；与传统蒸发器所需的分钟数相比。在本文中，我们将对使用相同系统和负载的传统热交换器和空气轴承热交换器进行初步比较，并展示使用这种新技术的能源效率和尺寸效益。 引用:ASHRAE论文:2015年ASHRAE年会，佐治亚州亚特兰大

Improving household refrigerators' efficiency plays an important role in the efforts toward realizing the energy efficient homes. Most recent U.S. Department of Energy analysis revealed that household refrigerators and freezers contributed to 4.7% of the site energy consumption for the average U.S. household. Previous research in refrigerator energy efficiency improvements included high performance compressors, variable speed compressors, oversized heat exchangers, better insulation, work recovery during gas expansion, and demand control frost management. In this paper we investigate a novel heat exchanger for its potential for size reduction and improvement in frost handling. These attributes may have significant impact on internal to external volume ratio and the reduction in the overall energy consumption. The air bearing heat exchangers, also called rotating heat exchanger, were first developed by Sandia National Laboratories to serve as high performance coolers. Initial applications for their device were in the area of electronic and high power density cooling applications. The presented work employed the air bearing heat exchanger as a potential substitute for current aluminum fin and tube evaporators used in the conventional refrigerators and freezers. It was found that due to centrifugal force caused by the rotating fins, frost grows as thin layers that can be defrosted in seconds; compared to minutes required for conventional evaporators. In this paper we will present a preliminary comparison between conventional and air bearing heat exchangers using the same system and load, and show the energy efficiency and size benefits for using this novel technique.