Submitted by T101yet t3_10osxiz in explainlikeimfive
mb34i t1_j6gq41s wrote
By itself, heat energy goes from an object with high temperature to an object with lower temperature.
Refrigerators have to pump heat backwards, from low temperature inside to higher temperature outside. They do this by exploiting a behavior that gases have, if you compress them they heat up, and if you let them expand they cool down.
So the refrigerator compressor compresses the gas to high pressure (and very hot), and then a fan is used to blow room-temperature air at the radiator containing this hot gas, to cool it down to room temperature. The room where you have the refrigerator gets hotter as a result.
Then inside the pipes in the refrigerator, the gas is allowed to decompress. The gas goes very cold as a result, and a fan inside the refrigerator blows air inside the refrigerator compartments over the very cold pipes, chilling the inside and warming up the pipes.
Then the gas is compressed again and the whole process is repeated.
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