Software

Application Note #601
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The Problem:
The customers product was an energy saving device for refrigerators. Testing of the device for actual
energy savings was done by a third party. The customer wanted to move all testing in-house for greater
control and cost-savings. The customer had been receiving just raw data from the third party and wanted
an integrated solution that would provide a quick and easy means of testing a variable number of units and
then creating professional looking reports after the testing was complete.
The Solution:
LabVIEW software from National Instruments was chosen to be the language for both the test and data
analysis process. The refrigerator units were placed inside a controlled temperature chamber and a Fluke
Data Bucket was used to acquire ambient, freezer, and refrigerator temperature, as well as voltage and
current consumption. The main LabVIEW panel allowed an operator to test up to four different
refrigerators with each unit having independent start and stop test times. Data was continually written to
disk to avoid the need for repeating an entire test cycle in case of power loss or computer malfunction.
This was important since a test cycle could be as long as twenty-four hours. When a test was complete,
the logged data was imported by another LabVIEW program for post processing data analysis. The data
analysis program calculated such parameters as energy consumed and energy saved as compared to a
baseline unit. When the analysis was complete, the data was presented graphically and an operator could
optionally create a hard copy report as well.
Hardware Used: Software Used:
Fluke 2620A National Instruments LabVIEW