Would it be possible to cool a room by leaving the refigerator door open?

palaceben

Certainly - in the same way that leaving the oven on heats the place up ..... but it would waste a lot of electricity!!! The fridge is colder than the outside temperature - the air's temperature will do all it can to stay constant, hence the total (outside) air temperature will fall once the fridge door is open. Dec 06 02, 12:58 AM

sequoianoir

The above answer is technically correct however the room would actually get cooler still by turning the refridgerator's power off. The inside of a fridge is cold due a process that makes the 'radiator panel' on the back of the fridge warm, even hot ! The amount of 'cold' generated on the inside is less than the heat generated on the 'outside' ! So running a fridge in a room can only make the room hotter than it would be if the fridge wasn't there!! The only exception to this is where there is an 'external' unit that does all the 'heating' bit and it is not in the room in question. This of course is the description of an air conditioning unit in cool mode !! Dec 06 02, 1:09 AM

palaceben

Good point, well made! Hadn't thought of the heat going out the back! Dec 06 02, 1:20 AM

Tom

The temperature rise inside of the the open refrigerator will alert the cooling system to start cooling again. But more heat will be released by the motor in the back of the refrigerator than absorbed by the cool air coming out in front. This follows from the second law of thermodynamics. As a result, the room temperature will become even hotter. Dec 06 02, 2:01 AM

Gnomon

Palaceben's answer is completely wrong. Leaving the refrigerator door open will heat the room up. A fridge is a net producer of heat. It takes heat out of the middle and pumps it out the back. Because of the motor, it gives out more heat at the back than it takes in from the inside. So leaving your fridge with the door open will heat the room. One way to avoid this is to cut a hole in the wall the same size as the fridge and stick the back of the fridge into a different room. The fridge will then cool the room which has the door of the fridge in it and will heat the room which has the back of the fridge in it. This type of system is called a 'heat pump'. It can be used to pump heat from outside your house into your house. A small amount of energy (in the form of electricity to operate the pump) can produce a larger amount of heat, because you are using heat from outside. Dec 06 02, 8:42 AM