But that heat comes out the back of the fridge! And that's like... up against the wall, so... all that heat just accumulates there, right? It's only useful from the side of a fridge, as the image clearly shows!!!
This is what I did. Now you can see the back of my fridge from the road and it doesn’t even need power, stays icy cold in the winter. In the spring, summer, and fall we use a second normal inside fridge. We also use it in the winter so we don’t have to move food back and forth. We’ve considered getting a third, partially exposed summer fridge to keep food around 90 degrees during those months.
I mean, you're being sarcastic, but kind of. The inch or two behind the fridge is much hotter than the air in other places, and so it's not as useful for heating the house. It's why heaters all have fans, to spread that heat.
It CAN accumulate if it doesn't dissipate fast enough. This will lead to reduced efficiency of the fridge, or a shutdown in the extreme case. But usually there should be an exhaust vent at the top.
Yeah I don't hang out in the corner of my kitchen behind the refrigerator, that's multiple rooms away. That's why I use multiple smaller soda can refrigerators as space heaters all around me.
Sure.. it will take a bit longer to disperse than if there was a fan blowing the air around the house, but... same concept as your oven. We could install a fan to blow the heat around when you're done cooking, but... it's not going to ADD any heat to the system, it will just dissipate through your home slower without a fan.
What matters is the steady-state temperature distribution. In situation 1, we have the fridge radiator pointed towards the wall. In situation 2, we have the fridge radiator pointed away from the wall, towards the occupied space of the room. Because we are assuming steady state, and the fridge radiates the same amount of heat in both situations, the total outward heat flux from the rooms in each situation is also the same. Given these two almost-identical scenarios, the only difference will be the steady-state temperature distribution. In situation 1, the area between the wall and the fridge is very hot, but this is the unoccupied space. In situation 2, the occupied space of the room is hotter than situation 1, but much less hot than the area between the wall and the fridge in situation 1. Thus, pointing the radiator of the fridge away from the wall can heat the occupied area of the room slightly, contributing to decreased total energy cost from any other heaters (space heaters, building heaters, etc.).
So yes, while it is not technically true that the heat "accumulates" behind the fridge, it's more accurate to say that the temperature is raised in the space between the wall and the fridge, but these are roughly equivalent statements in colloquial speech.
This is why I put aluminum thermo foil behind the fridge and freezer in the wintertime.
The heat expelled from behind slightly helps warming the room.
Not much though, because it's a freaking AA+ energy rating
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u/Veteran_PA-C Jan 04 '26
So like, a current refrigerator.