Are there fridges that work like portable air conditioners?

[tracer]

A portable air conditioner is a freestanding air conditioner with a hose sticking out of it. You stick the business end of the hose outside the window, and the air conditioner vents the hot air out through the hose, thereby removing the need to mount the entire air conditioning unit in a window.

Well ... has anybody applied the same technology to a refrigerator?

You know that old saw about how leaving a refrigerator open won't cool down the room, because the exhaust heat the compressor/condenser is removing from the inside of the 'fridge is just vented into the room out the back or the bottom? Well, why not vent that heat out through a hose instead, and run that hose outside, just like you would with an air conditioner? This would marginally reduce your cooling bill during the hot season, and would ultimately mean you could thumb your nose at all those negative-nellies who tell you you can't cool down a room by leaving your 'fridge open, because by golly, an open 'fridge with an exhaust hose leading outside WILL cool down the room it's in!

[beowulff]

Yeah, this idea has a total potential market worldwide of around 6 units.
Who makes the decision when buying a refrigerator? The wife.
Is she going to put up with a tube running across the room to a window?

[friedo]

You could run the tube through the wall in the same manner as a dryer vent. It doesn't have to go out the window.

But that ignores the fact that these setups are fairly inefficient. You have to add a large fan to move the exhaust through the tube, instead of just radiating it. That negates a lot of the benefit of moving the heat outside.

[suranyi]

Originally Posted by tracer

A portable air conditioner is a freestanding air conditioner with a hose sticking out of it. You stick the business end of the hose outside the window, and the air conditioner vents the hot air out through the hose, thereby removing the need to mount the entire air conditioning unit in a window.

Well ... has anybody applied the same technology to a refrigerator?

You know that old saw about how leaving a refrigerator open won't cool down the room, because the exhaust heat the compressor/condenser is removing from the inside of the 'fridge is just vented into the room out the back or the bottom? Well, why not vent that heat out through a hose instead, and run that hose outside, just like you would with an air conditioner? This would marginally reduce your cooling bill during the hot season, and would ultimately mean you could thumb your nose at all those negative-nellies who tell you you can't cool down a room by leaving your 'fridge open, because by golly, an open 'fridge with an exhaust hose leading outside WILL cool down the room it's in!

Doesn't that just turn your refrigerator into a ridiculously bulky air conditioner, at the cost of making it a somewhat less efficient refrigerator (when the door is open)? And if so, why not just buy a separate air conditioner as you started off with in the first paragraph?

[Musicat]

I think it's a matter of relative costs. My standard fridge heats the room in the winter, which is welcome, but not in the summer. If my heating costs were ten times what they are now, I might be quite receptive to a hose leading outside, as long as I could connect or disconnect it as appropriate. If many more homeowners felt the same, homes would be retrofitted with a hose line in the walls and a temperature sensor to handle the connection and all new homes would have that built-in, just like laundry facilities are now.

[beowulff]

Originally Posted by Musicat

I think it's a matter of relative costs. My standard fridge heats the room in the winter, which is welcome, but not in the summer. If my heating costs were ten times what they are now, I might be quite receptive to a hose leading outside, as long as I could connect or disconnect it as appropriate. If many more homeowners felt the same, homes would be retrofitted with a hose line in the walls and a temperature sensor to handle the connection and all new homes would have that built-in, just like laundry facilities are now.

Don’t you mean cooling costs?

[Musicat]

Originally Posted by beowulff

Don’t you mean cooling costs?

Yes. But I imagine that if cooling or heating costs went up by 10 times, it would be due to energy sources, and both would be affected.

[Joey P]

I assume you're just talking about residential units. Many commercial coolers and freezers have their compressors either outside or at least somewhere else in the building.

Once you get bigger then about a 3 door reach in cooler or a 2 door reach in freezer it really does start cranking out way to much heat and noise. By comparison, a residential fridge is like a Bic lighter compared to an acetylene torch. They're sealed up well, have gaskets that aren't worn out have waaaay more insulation and have a compressor that runs quietly, efficiently and, what, about 25% of that time as opposed to 50-100% of the time. Also, as others have added the very tiny, little bit they add to your cooling bill, they also help with your heating bill.
ISTM, it just wouldn't be worth the extra expense of exhausting the waste heat and dealing with the trouble that would create and/or moving the compressor outside and dealing with those issues.

[johnpost]

as Joey P describes large commercial units have lots of insulation and placing the condenser away from the cooled enclosure.

there are some who have done similar in a home especially in a hot environment. energy is saved with more insulation and placing the condenser so that it doesn't heat the box (like on a basement ceiling). it also save cooling costs getting the heat out of the living space.

[california jobcase]

I saw something like what you describe once, but subtly different. It was a Sub-Zero brand refrigerator that the owner paid to have customized. A refrigeration specialist guy removed and relocated the compressor and condenser to the owner's basement, directly beneath the kitchen. Classy, but costly.

[AaronX]

I do believe a refrigerator compressor is grossly underpowered to cool a room.

[Snnipe 70E]

Originally Posted by AaronX

I do believe a refrigerator compressor is grossly underpowered to cool a room.

Corrrect. Not sure, no have no idea how many BTUs a refrigerator would be rated at. But our 24 cu ft unit only draws a little over 5 amps. A good size window shaker draws 10 to 15 amps.

[foolscap]

I remember seeing a window A/C that had a tiny fridge built in.
Only large enough for a quart of milk, no ice maker.

[AaronX]

Originally Posted by Snnipe 70E

Corrrect. Not sure, no have no idea how many BTUs a refrigerator would be rated at. But our 24 cu ft unit only draws a little over 5 amps. A good size window shaker draws 10 to 15 amps.

Not only that, fridge compressors aren't designed to run for long periods (I don't think more than 1:1 onff).

[tracer]

Originally Posted by Snnipe 70E

Corrrect. Not sure, no have no idea how many BTUs a refrigerator would be rated at. But our 24 cu ft unit only draws a little over 5 amps. A good size window shaker draws 10 to 15 amps.

I assume these are on a 110 volt (American) circuit, not a 220 volt (European/Mexican) circuit?

(I ask because that means a factor of 2 difference in the wattage.)

[CookingWithGas]

Also, if you vent air to the outside, it's going to lower the inside pressure, drawing an equal amount of outside air into the house. So this only helps you if the outside temperature is lower than the temperature of the air being vented to the outside. I don't know how hot that vented air would be but I can't imagine it would be all that hot since refrigerators normally dump (the equivalent of) that air right into the house.

[beowulff]

Originally Posted by CookingWithGas

Also, if you vent air to the outside, it's going to lower the inside pressure, drawing an equal amount of outside air into the house. So this only helps you if the outside temperature is lower than the temperature of the air being vented to the outside. I don't know how hot that vented air would be but I can't imagine it would be all that hot since refrigerators normally dump (the equivalent of) that air right into the house.

Well, you could have a “closed loop” system, where the outside air passed over the condenser coils and then was rejected back outside, but the whole idea is ridiculous for a home-sized refrigerator.

[california jobcase]

I don't think the OP is about cooling a room with a refrigerator, but rather not warming one up by exhausting the air used to cool the condenser.

[Khendrask]

Originally Posted by tracer

I assume these are on a 110 volt (American) circuit, not a 220 volt (European/Mexican) circuit?

(I ask because that means a factor of 2 difference in the wattage.)

No, it doesn't affect the wattage used at all. Only the current demand.

[tracer]

Originally Posted by Khendrask

No, it doesn't affect the wattage used at all. Only the current demand.

Er, what?

A refrigerator drawing 5 amps that's plugged into a 110 volt outlet is drawing 550 watts.

A refrigerator drawing 5 amps that's plugged into a 220 volt outlet is drawing 1100 watts.

How does that NOT affect the wattage?

[Cheesesteak]

Originally Posted by california jobcase

I don't think the OP is about cooling a room with a refrigerator, but rather not warming one up by exhausting the air used to cool the condenser.

Even so, the cost of running a refrigerator is on the order of $100 per year. I can easily see a split system or duct system costing 5-10x that amount. That's going to eat up your cost savings, and drastically increase the difficulty of servicing and replacing the fridge when it goes down.

[johnpost]

Originally Posted by tracer

Er, what?

A refrigerator drawing 5 amps that's plugged into a 110 volt outlet is drawing 550 watts.

A refrigerator drawing 5 amps that's plugged into a 220 volt outlet is drawing 1100 watts.

How does that NOT affect the wattage?

watts up with that.

it is true if the current stayed the same then it it would be twice the watts.

in real life the watts stay the same and the current is cut in half.

[tracer]

Originally Posted by johnpost

watts up with that.

it is true if the current stayed the same then it it would be twice the watts.

in real life the watts stay the same and the current is cut in half.

*sigh* ... please go back and re-read the original message I was responding to when I wrote the first wattage-related post.

Snnipe 70E was saying: "But our 24 cu ft unit only draws a little over 5 amps. A good size window shaker draws 10 to 15 amps." I was asking whether that 5 amps was on a 110 volt circuit, or a 220 volt circuit, so that I could tell whether his/her 24 cu ft unit was drawing 550 watts, or 1100 watts.

Which I still don't know the answer to, by the way.

[jtur88]

What people often overlook is that all the energy used in your house that generates heat, has to be offset by cooling energy in summer. For example your hot water heater. If your water heater uses $50 worth of energy to create heat, all of that heat energy remains in your house (except maybe hot water that goes down the drain) and you will spend another $50 compensating for it by AC. (Not exactly 1:1, but you get the idea.) When the water heater kicks back on, it's replacing the heat that leaked through the insulation into your house. Similarly, all your light bulbs and Mr. Coffee machine are turning energy into heat, and it takes the same amount more energy to negate that heat.

[tracer]

Originally Posted by jtur88

What people often overlook is that all the energy used in your house that generates heat, has to be offset by cooling energy in summer. For example your hot water heater. If your water heater uses $50 worth of energy to create heat, all of that heat energy remains in your house (except maybe hot water that goes down the drain) and you will spend another $50 compensating for it by AC. (Not exactly 1:1, but you get the idea.) When the water heater kicks back on, it's replacing the heat that leaked through the insulation into your house.

Which is why I keep my water heater in the garage, separated from the rest of the house by a nice healthy layer of wall insulation.

[Snnipe 70E]

Originally Posted by tracer

*sigh* ... Please go back and re-read the original message i was responding to when i wrote the first wattage-related post.

Snnipe 70e was saying: "but our 24 cu ft unit only draws a little over 5 amps. A good size window shaker draws 10 to 15 amps." i was asking whether that 5 amps was on a 110 volt circuit, or a 220 volt circuit, so that i could tell whether his/her 24 cu ft unit was drawing 550 watts, or 1100 watts.

Which i still don't know the answer to, by the way.

us, 120 vac

[beowulff]

Originally Posted by tracer

Which is why I keep my water heater in the garage, separated from the rest of the house by a nice healthy layer of wall insulation.

If you are near San Jose, you would actually be better off keeping it inside the house, since the number of heating degree•days far exceeds the number of cooling degree•days:
http://ggweather.com/sjc/daily_records.html