Fridge Thermodynamics: Why Does Room Heat?

AI Thread Summary
When a refrigerator door is left open, the room heats up because the fridge moves heat from its interior to the outside, increasing the overall heat in the room. The refrigerator does not create coldness; it extracts heat from inside and releases it out the back, along with additional heat generated by its machinery. This process results in a net increase in room temperature. Similarly, air conditioning systems function like refrigerators but require external units to dissipate waste heat effectively. Thus, the operation of a refrigerator contributes to warming the surrounding environment when the door is open.
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when we leave the door of a fridge open,the room heats(according to what i read).how does this happen?pls explain?
 
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Ever held your hand to the back of a refrigerator? It's warm, warmer than the air in the room.

A refrigerator doesn't create coldness, it moves heat around. To be precise, it takes heat from the inside of the refrigerator and pumps it out the back, thereby making the inside of the refrigerator colder. But it dumps this heat into the room, along with some extra heat generated by the working of the refrigerator machinery itself - and the net effect is to increase the total amount of heat in the room.

This is why household air conditioning systems, which are basically refrigerators used to cool the inside of a house, have to have an outside unit - they need to be able to dump the waste heat outside the house to do any good.
 
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