How do refrigerators work?
Answer:
The refrigerant gas is compressed by the compressor.
The high pressure gas is cooled in the condenser (long coiled pipe with fins) by the surrounding air. It leaves the condenser as a high pressure liquid.
It then passes through the expansion valve where its pressure drops. At its new low pressure the liquid refrigerant starts to flash off to become a gas again. In order to evaporate it needs a large amount of energy quickly. This energy given up by the refrigerant causes its temperature to drop significantly. The cold refrigerant passes through the cooling coils inside the fridge thereby cooling the fridge and warming up the refrigerant to a gas again where it is drawn in by the compressor and the cycle continues.
They use an engineering discipline called Thermodynamics to move heat from one place (inside the refrigerator) to another (outside the refrigerator). So, when the heat is removed from inside the refrigerator, the air inside the refrigerator becomes cold.
they stop food rotting by keeping it chilled using electricity and magic
My (laymen) understanding is that there's a suitable gas in the pipework behind. This is decompressed in one section next to the storage area. The laws of physics apparently dictate that this decompressed gas will lower in temperature making the fridge cold.
In another part o the system the gas is then compressed again ready for decomperession. This then generates heat which is released via the radiator at the back of the fridge into the air.
I'm sure others will be able to give you more technical details.
this is very comprehensive and easy to understand:
http://home.howstuffworks.com/refrigerat...
I agree with Viper, but don't forget the little person who turns the light on and off for you when you open the door!!!
Here is a link that gives a better description than I ever could.
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/how_it_wor...
Ask to Refrigerators.
They will tell you good answer!.
When you compress a gas it heats the gas up. This is because the gas is releasing heat in order to become a liquid. When you suddenly release the pressure the liquid (or sometimes a compressed gas) the gas still needs heat to evaporate, so the heat would come from the food , the air in a refrigerator.
Thes guys are all wrong. The operation of the refrigerator is not the removing heat but rather the adding of cool.
with magic!
The following is a very basic explanation of the workings of a fridge. It's called a 'Thermodynamic' cycle.
In a fridge, a low boiling point refrigerant gas is compressed by the compressor.
The high pressure gas is cooled and condensed by the kitchen ambient temperature in the coils at the back of the fridge to give a high pressure liquid refrigerant.
The high pressure liquid refrigerant is then expanded to low pressure by a special expansion valve and the resultant partial vaporisation of the refrigerant causes a considerable drop in its temperature to near its normal boiling point. The cold vapour/liquid mixture passes through the coils of the cold box in the fridge and heat is removed from the fridge interior and its contents.
When the inside of the fridge reaches the thermostat set temperature, the compressor motor is shut down and re-starts again as the temperature tends to rise above the thermostat setting.
The process of heat exchange in the fridge re-vaporises all of the liquid refrigerant and the low pressure, warmer vapour is returned to the compressor to begin the cycle again.
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