Can You Cool a Room With a Refrigerator? (We Tested It Out!)
Summer heat can be unbearable, and finding ways to keep your home cool can be a challenge. While air conditioning is the most common solution, it can be expensive and not always effective. This has led some to consider alternative methods, such as using a household appliance like a refrigerator.
Unfortunately, cooling a room with a refrigerator is not possible. The amount of warm air that enters the room when the refrigerator door is open is greater than the amount of cold air that exits, making it difficult to lower the temperature. This also causes your refrigerator’s compressor to work harder to keep your perishables cool, increasing energy bills.
Despite this, there are still many ways to beat the heat and keep your home cool this summer. Keep reading to discover alternative cooling solutions that are both effective and budget-friendly. From fans to window treatments, you’ll find a variety of options to choose from.
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Here’s a Quick Pro Tip!
You can’t cool a room by keeping the refrigerator or freezer open, but there are other methods to reduce the temperature in your house. Besides installing an air conditioning unit, we have some other ideas!
Our favorite products from Amazon to cool a room
1. Portable Electric Fan – The perfect tool to move around with you and improve the airflow of a room.
2. Ceiling fan – a ceiling fan can cool multiple people in a room simultaneously.
3. Sun Blocking Curtains – These curtains will block the heat from the sun from entering your room.
Cooling With Refrigerators
Almost every house in the united states has a refrigerator to keep perishable items fresh for longer. Standing in front of an open fridge can be bliss in the summer months, but can it cool the entire room?
Is It Possible to Cool a Room With a Refrigerator?
A refrigerator is not powerful enough to cool an entire room. Keeping the refrigerator doors open will only increase the hot air flowing into the fridge and force your fridge to work a lot harder.
A refrigerator can not be used as an air conditioner since it’s not powerful enough to cool a whole room. The appliance also increases its excess temperature the harder it works, so leaving the door open could cause the fridge to overheat.
Can You Cool Your Kitchen by Leaving the Refrigerator Door Open?
You cannot cool a kitchen by leaving the refrigerator door open. On the contrary, it might slightly increase the temperature in the kitchen since the fridge’s refrigerant causes excess exhaust heat.
Leaving the door open forces the fridge to work overtime to maintain the temperature inside and keep your food cold. It would be best to install an air conditioner unit in your kitchen or a fan to keep the airflow circulating.
Why Can’t You Use the Cooling System of a Refrigerator to Cool a Hot Room?
A refrigerator does not use the same cooling method as an air conditioner. A refrigerator is designed to cool a very small area immediately, so it utilizes pipes filled with refrigerant to remove the heat in a small confined space.
On the other hand, an air conditioner uses the natural air in the room. Ducts and vents move the hot and cold air around the room to gradually reach the desired temperature. Air conditioners can cool down a large room.
Can a Room Be Cooled by Leaving the Refrigerator Open?
A refrigerator is not designed to cool a whole room, so leaving the fridge door open will not cool the room down. Leaving the door open puts a huge amount of stress on the motor and compressor of the fridge, often causing something to break.
The best way to cool a room is to improve the airflow by opening the windows and using a fan. A ceiling fan would be able to cool many people in a room, while a portable electric fan can be moved around in the house.
You might also enjoy our post on If You Can Put a Refrigerator on Carpet
Can a Closed Room Be Cooled by Opening the Door of a Refrigerator?
Leaving your refrigerator door open will not cool a closed room. A refrigerator can only cool a small internal confined space, not a whole room like a traditional air conditioner can.
Refrigerators run refrigerant through a maze of pipes to keep the inside cold. The outside of the fridge will get hot as it keeps the inside cool, although when you open the door, you are allowing hot air to flow into the fridge and forcing the motor to work harder.
Does a Fridge Make a Room Hotter?
A fridge can make a room slightly hotter, although it depends on the size of the fridge, the size of the room, and the airflow. A big fridge in a small room could noticeably push up the temperature.
If you suspect your fridge is making your kitchen hotter, you can open the windows and the door to encourage airflow. You could also run a fan in the kitchen to increase the airflow. The compressor might have a problem if your fridge is exhausting excessive heat.
Fridge to AC Unit
It’s a common misconception that a refrigerator and an AC unit work in the same way, both make a space cold right? Well, actually there are some key differences, let’s have a closer look.
What’s the Difference Between an Air Conditioner and a Refrigerator?
The biggest difference between an air conditioner and a refrigerator is how they work and what purpose they are used for. Refrigeration cools and freezes a small immediate area, utilizing pipes filled with coolant.
Air conditioning uses a mixture of coolant and air from outside the room to cool and dehumidify the air inside the room. Refrigeration is better for food storage, like the chill room at a restaurant, where people do not spend a lot of time.
On the other hand, air conditioning is better for rooms where people spend any amount of time. It’s not very common to find refrigerated rooms in a house in the United States, although it is very common to have an air conditioning system in a house.
You might also enjoy our post on Why Icicles Form in Freezers
How Can I Turn My Old Fridge Into an AC Unit?
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Can You Turn a Refrigerator Into an Air Conditioner?
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How Can I Make My Fan Cooler Without Ice?
You can make your fan colder with the help of crosswind, which pushes hot air out and cool air in. Close all your windows and curtains during the day, and at night open everything and place one fan facing out of the window.
That might sound counterintuitive, but the fan facing out blows all the hot air out of your room. Place another fan facing inward to circulate the cool air in your room. You should be able to feel a noticeable difference if you utilize crosswinds.
Other AC Options
So, what are your options if you can’t use a refrigerator and don’t have an AC? In this section, we’ll look at some alternative methods that you can use to cool your house during the next heat wave.
How Can I Keep My Room Cool Without AC?
The cheapest way to keep your room cool without an AC is to close the curtains and blinds during the day. If you have sun-blocking curtains, even better! This will keep the hot sun out of your room.
At night you can open your sun-blocking curtains or blinds and open your windows to allow the cool night air to circulate in your room. You can also turn on a fan to increase the airflow and potentially cool your room.
How Can I Cool Down My Room?
You could do many things to cool your room, the most effective being installing an air conditioner. This might not always be the best option though, so alternatively, you could install a ceiling fan.
The catch with a fan is that it only cools people, not the actual room. You can switch off devices that emit heat, like a desktop or laptop, and keep your windows and curtains closed during daylight.
How Can I Make a Homemade Air Conditioner?
You can make a homemade air conditioner with an old fan and a copper pipe. Copper is a thermally conductive metal that can conduct hot and cool temperatures. Attach a long pipe of copper to the outside grid of a fan.
After attaching the copper pipe to the grid, connect a plastic tube to both ends of the copper pipe. Attach a water pump to the plastic tube and place the water pump in a cooler with ice. The pump will force water through the plastic, and the copper pipe and the fan will blow the cool air onto you.
Is Refrigerated Air the Same as Central Air?
Refrigerated and central air are not synonymous since they work in different ways and serve different purposes. Refrigeration is used to cool an immediate area with the help of a coolant. Fridges and freezers use refrigerated air.
An air conditioner (or central air) is used to cool a much larger space by circulating hot and cold air to cool down our whole house. Central air also removes the humidity in the air, which refrigerated air does not do.
How Does Refrigerated Air Conditioning Work?
Refrigerated air conditioning does work in a very similar way as fridges and freezers. The AC moves hot air inside your home to the outside by pressuring and depressurizing the refrigerant.
Refrigerant can change forms between a liquid and a gas as it heats up and cools down. When the air in your home is hot, the compressor cools down the refrigerant and blows cold air back into your home.
You might also enjoy our post on If Can You Put Furniture Infront of a Radiator
How Can I Cool My House Naturally?
One of the best ways to cool your house naturally is to vent your attic. A lot of heat gets trapped in your attic and warms your whole house, so venting the air out of the attic will cool your whole home.
Invest in sun-blocking curtains or blinds and keep them closed during the daytime. This will prevent the sun rays from heating up your home through the windows. At night you can open the windows to welcome cooler air into your house.
Related Questions
Will Leaving the Freezer Open Cool a Room?
Leaving the freezer open will not cool a room since a freezer does not work like an air conditioner. Leaving the door open could increase the room temperature since the compressor would need to work harder and emit more heat.
Freezers are designed to cool a relatively small confined space. If you leave the freezer door open, hot air flows into the freezer. The compressor will start to work double time to compensate for all the hot air, and as the compressor works harder, it gives off more and more heat on the outside of the appliance.
How Many BTUs Does a Refrigerator Give Off?
The average fridge uses 488BTUs per hour, which means it also gives off an average of 488BTUs per hour. Generally, a fridge will add a few degrees to the actual temperature of your room.
In most cases, the heat that a fridge emits goes unnoticed, although if you are in a particularly small enclosed room, a fridge could make a big difference in the air temperature. Most appliances have a BTU/h measurement which indicates how much energy it uses.
How Do I Convert a Refrigerator to a Heat Pump?
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Final Thoughts
You can’t leave a refrigerator open to cool down a room. You can use other methods, like an electric fan or sun-blocking curtains, to cool down a room. We would not recommend leaving your fridge door open, you might break your compressor and have an even bigger problem.
