On Thu, 28 Jan 2010 10:39:00 -0500, blueman wrote:

I have always wondered about this one...
Refrigerators are one of the top energy consumers in homes.
In Northern climates, the outside temperature is colder than indoor
temperature at least 6 months of the year.

Why aren't they designed with "heat" exchangers to benefit from cool if
not frigid external air?

Even in warm climates (or summers) why isn't the same principle used to
vent the warm air from the compressor & coils outside rather than
loading the AC?

Presumably this could all be done by putting the evaporator coils
outside which would in turn decrease (or eliminate if cold enough) the
draw on the compressor during winter months.

IIUC they tried this with air conditioning and it didnt' work.

Of course, installation might be a little more expensive, but with all
the focus on green-this and green-that why isn't this being done?

All kidding aside, I think you have a very good idea, actually. The
one problem I see is that if the condenser were only outside, in the
hot summer it would be hard and/or electrically-expensive to get it
cold in the fridge. And I don't know an easy way to switch condensers
with the season**. I wonder what they do in areas very north or very
south when it is always or almost always less than 70 degrees outside.
Surely, at polar locations, where fuel must be hard to import, they
don't waste fuel the way fridges do (or do they?) in the USA in the
winter.

The fuel isn't really wasted in that the fridge heats the home. It
does so electrically which is expensive, but in polar outposts, maybe
all heat is electric? I don't know what they use.

**The way around this for home heating cooling is to have the
condensor outside and the furnace inside, but people use heat pumps in
Maryland and areas south of here.

I turn the vent from my clothes dryer to vent outside in the summer
and inside in the winter, but that's a lot simpler than redoing a
condenser connection. (Yes, I know some people here think that causes
humidity problems in the house but it doesnt' for me. Most houses are
dry in the winter and that's why they put humidifiers on furnaces.)