Originally Posted By: 440Magnum
Originally Posted By: ecotourist
Originally Posted By: Kestas
Originally Posted By: exranger06
No, if you understood how refrigerators work, you would know that that would not work.
Actually, it would work. I remember this as a question in my thermodynamics class.
I agree. The electrical energy spent trying to cool the surroundings would generate heat.
Only way it wouldn't work would be if the heat distribution coils were not in the same space; 40 or more years ago I saw a refrigerator set into a kitchen wall in such a way that the heat distribution coils were in the porch behind - in that (very rare) situation it would heat the porch and cool the kitchen - but I digress. As a general statement, it would work.
Rare for home refrigeration, but most supermarket refrigerated display cases have their condenser coils (and often compressors) mounted outside the store so they're not just shedding heat into the store interior which then has to be dealt with by the building HVAC. In the summer, the display cases actually help keep the building cool.
I've seen propane powered fridges that have their hot side out in the porch, they work a little differently though and use the liquid propane as the refrigerant and burn it off after it's expanded in the evaporator coil.
A fridge with the door open would definitely have a net heat gain in a room though. Only way they wouldn't is if you could somehow make on that is 100% efficient I'd guess the best your going to find is 80-90% using the WAG method. The rest is lost as heat in pumping inefficiency and electrical loss all converted to heat at some point.