This paper reports on results of investigations to identify and quantify the effect of in-store environmental conditions on frost accumulation on the evaporator coils of open multideck refrigerated display cabinets. Field and environmental chamber- based tests have shown that both ambient relative humidity and temperature of a store have a significant effect on the rate of frost formation on the evaporator coils, with the effect of relative humidity being much more pronounced than the effect of temperature. In supermarkets where a fixed-time defrost control strategy is employed, it is possible that cabinets are defrosted too infrequently at high relative humidities, resulting in high product temperatures, and too frequently at low relative humidities, resulting in excessive energy consumption. Considerable opportunity exists for the application of more sophisticated defrost control strategies, both to save energy and improve temperature control.

Units: SI