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In the summertime, maybe you have gotten out of a swimming pool and then felt very cold standing in the sun? That is since the water on your skin is evaporating. The water vapor is carried off by the air, and with it a few of the temperature is being removed from your own skin.

This really is similar to what happens inside older refrigerators. As opposed to water, though, the fridge uses chemicals to complete the cooling.

There are a few things that need to be known for refrigeration.

1. A gasoline cools on expansion.

2. When you yourself have two things that are different temperatures that effect or are near one another, the hotter surface cools and the colder surface warms up. It is a law of physics called the Next Law of Thermodynamics.

Old Refrigerators

If you look at the back or base of an older ice box, you'll see a long thin tube that loops back and forth. This pipe is connected to a pump, which can be powered by an electric motor.

Inside the tube is Freon, a kind of gas. Freon could be the manufacturer of the gas. This gas, chemically is known as Chloro-Flouro-Carbon or CFC. This gas was found to hurt the surroundings when it escapes from appliances. So now, other substances are utilized in a slightly different approach (see next section below).

CFC starts out as a liquid. The pump forces the CFC via a large amount of coils in the freezer area. There the substance turns to a vapor. When it does, it eats up a few of the heat that could be in the freezer compartment. Since it does this, the coils get colder and the freezer begins to obtain colder.

In the part of your refrigerator, there are fewer rings and a larger space. Therefore, less heat is assimilated by the circles and the CFC steam.

The pump then sucks the CFC as a vapor and pushes it through pipes which are on the outside of the refrigerator. By modifying it, the CFC turns back in a fluid and heat is given off and is absorbed by the air around it. That's why it could be just a little warmer behind or under your refrigerator.

After the CFC passes through the exterior rings, the fluid is able to return through the ice box and freezer over and over.

Today's Refrigerators

Contemporary appliances do not use CFC. Instead they use ammonia gas. Ammonia gas turns into a fluid if it is cooled to -27 degrees Fahrenheit (-6.5 degrees Celsius).

A compressor and motor pushes the ammonia gas. As it is pressurized when it is compressed, a gas heats up. Once you move the compressed gas through the coils on the back or base of a contemporary fridge, the hot ammonia gas can lose its warmth to the air in the room.

Remember what the law states of thermodynamics.

Because it is under a top pressure as it cools, the ammonia gas can transform into ammonia liquid.

The ammonia liquid passes through what's called an expansion valve, a tiny little opening that the liquid needs to fit through. Between your valve and the compressor, there's a low-pressure area since the compressor is pulling the ammonia gas out of that side.

It comes and changes right into a gas once the liquid ammonia strikes a low pressure area. That is called vaporizing.

Where the ammonia in the coil pulls the warmth out of the spaces the rings then go through the fridge and regular part of the refrigerator. This makes the inside of the fridge and total fridge cold.

The compressor sucks up the cool ammonia gas, and the gas dates back through the same procedure over and over.

How Does the Temperature Remain the Exact Same Inside?

A tool called a thermocouple (it's generally a can sense if the heat in the refrigerator is as cool as you would like it to be. When it reaches that temperature, the electricity is shut off by the device to the compressor.

However the fridge is not completely covered. There are places, like across the doors and where the pipes go through, a little bit can be leaked by that.

When the cold from inside the refrigerator begins to flow out and the warmth leaks in, the compressor is turned by the thermocouple back to cool the refrigerator off again.

That's why you'll hear your fridge compressor motor coming on, working for a time and then turning it self off.

Today's appliances, however, are extremely energy efficient. Ones offered today use about one-tenth the amount of electricity of ones that were built 20 years ago. So, when you yourself have an old, old fridge, it's safer to purchase a new one because you'll save money (and energy) over a lengthy time frame.

To learn more go to:

Argone National Laboratory - Ask A Scientist ( Hand's 8th Grade Science Site (www.mansfieldct.org/schools/mms/staff/hand/heatrefrig.htm)

How Stuff Works - Fridge (www.howstuffworks.com/refrigerator.htm)

Research Treasure Trove - icebox page (www.education.eth.net/acads/treasure_trove/refrigerator.htm) appliance repair in richmond