Final Report Summary - GREEN KITCHEN (Network for strategic Industry-Academia research on energy efficiency, optimised resources use and process innovation of home appliances and their domotic integration)
The main goal of the GREEN KITCHEN project is to develop and share crucial knowledge in the field of future home appliances and domotic systems in order to further advance technologies and eco-design strategies needed for improving energy efficiency of home appliances.
Innovative households can help reduce national energy consumption, not only by improving their energy efficiency, but also by reducing and reusing the waste produced in terms of heat and water.
Major appliances in the domestic environment such as ovens, refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers, use electricity and gas as energy vectors, utilize water as working fluid for many washing processes and produce heat and “grey water” as a by-product. More than 50% of the total electrical energy consumed at home for an average family is due to the use of home appliances. Eco-design of integrated home appliance systems exploiting newly emerging scientific and industrial knowledge could help saving huge amounts of heat and water in the Household sector, using heat recovery technologies, innovative refrigeration technologies, advanced controls for cooking and refrigeration of food, waste recovery systems, resource/energy sharing among appliances and their domotic integration.
The project was successfully finished on June 30th, 2014: all WPs were successfully concluded. Almost 100 months of secondments have been already implemented and more than 20 researchers were involved in ToK activities.
Three expert researchers were hired by Whirlpool Europe as planned. The first two left Whirlpool after the ending of their working contracts and moved towards other academic positions. The third and last one worked at Whirlpool up to the end of July 2014 and is in contact with Politecnico di Milano for a Research fellowship. Among the project main results we can cite:
• WP2: outcomes of this work package are: a) detailed assessment of the waste heat produced, during a working cycle and during an off-period, by the most common appliances at European (EU-27) level; b) modeling tools for energy storage systems suitable for the kitchen environment; c) a working prototype of thermal heat storage based on Phase Change Materials.
• WP3: outcomes of this work package are: a modeling tool for the determination of the maximum values of temperature span achievable by the magnetic cooling system and two working prototypes of magnetic cooling devices.
• WP4 has produced a technology matrix of water sensor for various contaminants, and designed, by the sol-gel method, a material which gives an answer to mercury(II) ions in water. The research developed in this work package was also of support for the development of an appliance set with dish washer and fridge energetically coupled.
• WP5 For the induction cooking process different control systems and estimators of water and oil temperature were investigated and tested. Experimental work has also been done to analyse the thermal mass distribution on a production domestic oven and the energetic efficiency of an oven without a cooling system. A new domestic oven with high reflectivity internal walls has been designed and tested. On the cooling side, some new energy saving control systems for refrigeration were investigated. The new control strategy was applied and tested on a Whirlpool fridge.
• WP6 produced a software prototype for a domotic unit able of activity scheduling and user behaviour learning. This software gives feedback to users about cost saving actions and offers the possibility to easily add real-time peak shaving.
Final results and their impacts
Scientific and technological knowledge about home appliances and their domotic integration is scattered amongst a wide variety of academic and industrial organizations, which hampers the effective development of future energy optimal home appliance systems. In this background and through the collaborative research, the project partners have tackled the GREEN KITCHEN Project objectives.
The research work developed for domestic ovens optimization led to the realization of an innovative oven design that can reduce electric power consumption up to 20%. The work done about waste energy recovery, storage and reuse lead to the development of a prototype for gathering and storing thermal energy making use of Phase Change Materials.
For cook-tops, induction cooking control was one of the main topics studied. New approaches and algorithms were designed to advance cooking quality, easiness and safety.
On the cooling side, the project attacked on one hand “conventional” technologies trying to reduce energy consumption thanks to the application of a new linear compressor and new control algorithms to the fridge/freezer management; on the other hand, magnetic refrigeration was studied and two prototypes of coolers based on this technology were realized and tested. Performance and costs of this latter technology keep it still very far from the application to commercial appliances.
Another results to notice is the contribution that the GK project research gave to the innovative GREEN KITCHENTM appliances set. In this kitchen concept, the 6TH SENSE PowerCleanTM Dishwasher and the 6TH SENSE Fresh Control Combi refrigerator are connected with each other delivering outstanding performances in food conservation and cleaning results. This unique system uses wasted heat generated by the refrigerator to warm up water that will be sent to the dishwasher for the washing cycle. It gives users all the performance of an A+++ dishwasher.
Thanks to research results and lessons learned in the Project, GK Partners have finally defined a Road Map for the development of the GREEN KITCHEN concept that is based on the new scenarios for a “low-waste” domestic kitchen. Continuos efforts in reducing energy use and waste should be pursued, particularly when introducing new energy-transformation technologies.
Wasted-energy management is however increasingly challenging, owing to its decreasing quantity and quality. As a consequence, CO2 burden associated with energy waste is becoming lower than CO2 associated with food and packaging waste. Therefore waste-reduction culture and appliance design must focus on Food Novel technologies to monitor food quality (and quantity) and improve its shelf-life. ICT is mature to embed food-waste reduction culture, systems, and strategies. Optimal use of resources and resupplies in the home is the way forward. Opportunities in domestic food-waste management should extend to trash separation and collection/disposal/recycle optimizations, in a societal effort to reduce waste. The GREEN KITCHEN philosophy is therefore not just the evolution of appliances technology, but also a behavioural approach toward a low waste society.
Innovative households can help reduce national energy consumption, not only by improving their energy efficiency, but also by reducing and reusing the waste produced in terms of heat and water.
Major appliances in the domestic environment such as ovens, refrigerators, washing machines and dishwashers, use electricity and gas as energy vectors, utilize water as working fluid for many washing processes and produce heat and “grey water” as a by-product. More than 50% of the total electrical energy consumed at home for an average family is due to the use of home appliances. Eco-design of integrated home appliance systems exploiting newly emerging scientific and industrial knowledge could help saving huge amounts of heat and water in the Household sector, using heat recovery technologies, innovative refrigeration technologies, advanced controls for cooking and refrigeration of food, waste recovery systems, resource/energy sharing among appliances and their domotic integration.
The project was successfully finished on June 30th, 2014: all WPs were successfully concluded. Almost 100 months of secondments have been already implemented and more than 20 researchers were involved in ToK activities.
Three expert researchers were hired by Whirlpool Europe as planned. The first two left Whirlpool after the ending of their working contracts and moved towards other academic positions. The third and last one worked at Whirlpool up to the end of July 2014 and is in contact with Politecnico di Milano for a Research fellowship. Among the project main results we can cite:
• WP2: outcomes of this work package are: a) detailed assessment of the waste heat produced, during a working cycle and during an off-period, by the most common appliances at European (EU-27) level; b) modeling tools for energy storage systems suitable for the kitchen environment; c) a working prototype of thermal heat storage based on Phase Change Materials.
• WP3: outcomes of this work package are: a modeling tool for the determination of the maximum values of temperature span achievable by the magnetic cooling system and two working prototypes of magnetic cooling devices.
• WP4 has produced a technology matrix of water sensor for various contaminants, and designed, by the sol-gel method, a material which gives an answer to mercury(II) ions in water. The research developed in this work package was also of support for the development of an appliance set with dish washer and fridge energetically coupled.
• WP5 For the induction cooking process different control systems and estimators of water and oil temperature were investigated and tested. Experimental work has also been done to analyse the thermal mass distribution on a production domestic oven and the energetic efficiency of an oven without a cooling system. A new domestic oven with high reflectivity internal walls has been designed and tested. On the cooling side, some new energy saving control systems for refrigeration were investigated. The new control strategy was applied and tested on a Whirlpool fridge.
• WP6 produced a software prototype for a domotic unit able of activity scheduling and user behaviour learning. This software gives feedback to users about cost saving actions and offers the possibility to easily add real-time peak shaving.
Final results and their impacts
Scientific and technological knowledge about home appliances and their domotic integration is scattered amongst a wide variety of academic and industrial organizations, which hampers the effective development of future energy optimal home appliance systems. In this background and through the collaborative research, the project partners have tackled the GREEN KITCHEN Project objectives.
The research work developed for domestic ovens optimization led to the realization of an innovative oven design that can reduce electric power consumption up to 20%. The work done about waste energy recovery, storage and reuse lead to the development of a prototype for gathering and storing thermal energy making use of Phase Change Materials.
For cook-tops, induction cooking control was one of the main topics studied. New approaches and algorithms were designed to advance cooking quality, easiness and safety.
On the cooling side, the project attacked on one hand “conventional” technologies trying to reduce energy consumption thanks to the application of a new linear compressor and new control algorithms to the fridge/freezer management; on the other hand, magnetic refrigeration was studied and two prototypes of coolers based on this technology were realized and tested. Performance and costs of this latter technology keep it still very far from the application to commercial appliances.
Another results to notice is the contribution that the GK project research gave to the innovative GREEN KITCHENTM appliances set. In this kitchen concept, the 6TH SENSE PowerCleanTM Dishwasher and the 6TH SENSE Fresh Control Combi refrigerator are connected with each other delivering outstanding performances in food conservation and cleaning results. This unique system uses wasted heat generated by the refrigerator to warm up water that will be sent to the dishwasher for the washing cycle. It gives users all the performance of an A+++ dishwasher.
Thanks to research results and lessons learned in the Project, GK Partners have finally defined a Road Map for the development of the GREEN KITCHEN concept that is based on the new scenarios for a “low-waste” domestic kitchen. Continuos efforts in reducing energy use and waste should be pursued, particularly when introducing new energy-transformation technologies.
Wasted-energy management is however increasingly challenging, owing to its decreasing quantity and quality. As a consequence, CO2 burden associated with energy waste is becoming lower than CO2 associated with food and packaging waste. Therefore waste-reduction culture and appliance design must focus on Food Novel technologies to monitor food quality (and quantity) and improve its shelf-life. ICT is mature to embed food-waste reduction culture, systems, and strategies. Optimal use of resources and resupplies in the home is the way forward. Opportunities in domestic food-waste management should extend to trash separation and collection/disposal/recycle optimizations, in a societal effort to reduce waste. The GREEN KITCHEN philosophy is therefore not just the evolution of appliances technology, but also a behavioural approach toward a low waste society.