Studyrefrigerators
Hypothesis: Refrigerators in older buildings will have less efficient cooling systems, making them have a larger range of temperature throughout, as well as being warmer overall.
1.To test our hypothesis, we took thermal images of three different refrigerators. 2. The fridge was kept shut until the moment the camera began to film. 3. The fridge was kept closed 15 minutes prior to filming. 4. All fridges were set to their “standard” temperature (Level 5 was considered the standard)
2 Comments
As a heads up, the contents of the refridgerator can make a huge difference.
If you have a fridge with nothing in it at all, the fridge is only cooling the air inside of itself. When you open the fridge, the air is very quickly replaced with warmer room air.
If you have a fridge full of objects with high specific heat capacity and very little room for free-flowing air, then when you open the door, little air is exchanged, and the objects with a high specific heat capacity will retain their chill against the room temperature air.
For this reason, some people fill the empty space in their refridgerators with left over 2L bottles and gallon jugs that have been filled with water. The water has a high specific heat capacity, so it won't quickly warm up when the door is opened.
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As an example of something with low specific heat capacity, you could fill your fridge with metal pots. Although the pots won't fall out of the fridge the way air does, they will take on heat and warm up very quickly (compared to say, jugs of water).
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