4 MASS. EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETIN 408 



served in the best manner possible. The elimination of small-sized tin cans, 

 owing to the tin shortage, means that small families must buy many of their 

 canned foods in larger units than can be consumed at one meal. A marked 

 economy can be realized b\ using the home refrigerator for the storage of these 

 partially used cans of food. 



Electric Refrigerators More Economical and Efficient 



Investigators have shown that electric household refrigerators not only are 

 more economical to operate but also provide a more efficient means of preserving 

 foods than do ice-cooled refrigerators. 



Figure 1. Arrangement of Refrigerators and Controls. 



GENERAL EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE 



Refrigerators 



Two standard 1941 electric refrigerators were used throughout this investiga- 

 tion. One of the refrigerators had an eight cubic foot capacity and the other was a 

 six cubic foot model. These two machines are shown in Figure 1, together with 

 some of the equipment used to measure temperature and power consumption. 

 They were set up in a room in which the temperature was kept as nearly constant 

 as possible, varying only by about 10°F. during any one day. The temperature 

 usually ran between 70°F. and 80°F. / 



Power Ccnsumption 



A watt hour meter and an electric time clock were connected in the circuit of 

 each refrigerator so that the running time and watt hours of electricity consumed 



