Jim Scott wrote:
On Mon, 02 Jan 2006 00:44:44 GMT, raden wrote:


In message , Jim Scott
writes

On Sun, 01 Jan 2006 23:15:17 GMT, raden wrote:


In message , john
writes

advice.

Bad idea.
Fridges have to give out the heat they have taken from the food.
They do it most efficiently in a cold room. That's why you have to turn
them up in the summer.
--
Jim
Tyneside UK


Why should you need to turn up a thermostat in a different season? It works
by sensing the temperature inside the cabinet. A setting is the same all
year round.

Do you turn up your room thermostat when it snows? Or your oven on a cold
day?


The bit about working best in a cold room's also not necessarily true

as has been discussed numerous times in here

... not a post to take seriously

Learn some basic physics then come back with a sensible answer.

I have a degree in physics

and it was a sensible answer

and what I said was true - fridges can fail if the ambient temperature
is too low, but since you don't seem to understand how a thermostat
works, It's not really explaining anything more complicated to you

I think you should go away and learn some applied physics and come back
when you have a clue


Since I too have a degree in physics and 40 years teaching and examining
it, it is obvious you don't have any knowledge at all about heat engines
and thermodynamics laws.
The question of the cupboard has little to do with the internal thermostat.
It has everything to do with the temperature difference between the outer
heat sink and the temperature of the surroundings.


ISTM that there are/were fridges didn't perform well in cold conditions.

They have a single thermostat in the fridge rather then the freezer
section. If the ambient condtions are "too cold", then the fridge
doesn't have to run much, if at all, to get the thermostat to operate.
Great! Low electric bills! But it then doesn't run long enough to get
the freezer section down to low enough to keep things frozen.

Having the thermostat in the freezer section can also cause problems:

This is a control system which can have big lags. Take the situation
with the conventional situation of the thermostat being in the icebox.
The heat pump runs and lowers the temperature to the point that the
thermostat operates. These thermostats have hysteresis - so the
temperature at the thermostat will have to rise a few degrees before the
thermostat will operate again. Heat energy is being transferred into
the body of the fridge from the environment, mostly by conduction
through the case- the higher the temperature outside, the faster the
inside will warm up. Inside the fridge, heat has to transfer to the
icebox, and hence the thermostat, mostly by convection. Under certain
circumstances, eg when the ambient temperatures are high and the fridge
has poor insulation, the fridge section can rise to a relatively high
temperature much more quickly than the heat can be transferred to the
freezer section and raise that temperature to the point of operation of
the thermostat. Thus the stuff in the body of the fridge can "go off",
even though the stuff in the icebox is fine.

Turning the thermostat to a colder setting *will* help. Set low enough,
the temperature in the fridge section doesn't rise to dangerous levels
before the thermostat operates and the heat pumps starts again.

Putting the fridge in a cupboard can raise the ambient temperature.
Which increases the rate of heat flow through the walls of the fridge
into the main body. Which means the fridge section gets hotter faster.
Which can mean it can get to unsafe temperatures before enough heat can
be transferred bu convection inside the fridge to raise the freezer
section enough to operate the thermostat.

The outer heat sink is a different matter. It too mostly loses heat
energy through convection. In a restricted airflow situation, turning
the thermostat to a lower setting will increase the temperature of the
heatsink (simplifying things..) thus increasing the temperature
differential between it and the ambient air. More heat energy will
transfer. Which raises the ambient temperature - which increases the
heat flow back into the fridge body...which makes the heatpump work
more, which raises the heatsink temperature...

Thus the question of the internal thermostat has *everything* to do with
being in a cupboard - if the fridge has relatively poor insulation.

The question of the cupboard has little to do with the temperature
*difference* between the outer heat sink and the temperature of the
surroundings. It has a great deal to do with the actual temperature of
the outer heat sink and hence the actual temperature of the
surroundings, when hot air cannot escape to the infinite heatsink, known
as my kitchen in Winter....

--
Sue