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No it's not. Claiming heat from a fridge would be like grabbing a cup of water for a minute a few times a day. The extra shit that needs to be manufactured and

No it's not. Claiming heat from a fridge would be like grabbing a cup of water for a minute a few times a day. The extra shit that needs to be manufactured and transported is surely not worth the effort at all.

cameldrv 2y ago
I wouldn’t be surprised if someone starts making these. The heat that comes off a typical refrigerator is enough to heat about 1/3 of a typical house’s hot water usage.
- bongodongobob 2y ago
  What?? Not even close.
  - orra 2y ago
    To put numbers on this, you can buy a C rated fridge freezer in the UK which uses 176 kWh of energy per annum. That's an average power consumption of 20W. But electric heaters are say 1200W or 2000W.
    - Avamander 2y ago
      That includes the lights and all the rest. That gives you like 3m³ (790 gallons) of 60°C (140°F) water. Which is really not a lot.
Nevermark 2y ago
Mini-split HVAC systems create both heated and cooled air, and send them to just the rooms they are needed, while also redistributing existing disparities of hot and cold. The latter being the most efficient HVAC mode of all. I could imagine at some point, all our heated and cooled air, water, and ice could be one system. For fast temperature demands, such as hot water or ice, perhaps reservoirs of chemically stored heat and cold could be built up at useful locations, for very high speed release when needed. Completely dispense with storing hot or cold air/water, except for fridges. But provide the cool air for them, as a byproduct of being one system, avoiding the local inefficiency of both cooling air in small quantities and generating heat at the same location. It would make it cheaper to have more fridges and ice makers around a houses, if you just had to plug them into power and an HVAC controlled "inlet/outlet".
- nimish 2y ago
  Correct! This is how some advanced systems already work in multifamily, where one room's excess heat is routed to another rooms lack of heat -- "Variable Refrigerant Flow" or VRF
nimish 2y ago
> Claiming heat from a fridge would be like grabbing a cup of water for a minute a few times a day. Did you know that people do this? The brits love making a cuppa tea. It's free energy and the heat pump in the fridge is already doing the work.

cameldrv 2y ago

I wouldn’t be surprised if someone starts making these. The heat that comes off a typical refrigerator is enough to heat about 1/3 of a typical house’s hot water usage.

bongodongobob 2y ago
What?? Not even close.
- orra 2y ago
  To put numbers on this, you can buy a C rated fridge freezer in the UK which uses 176 kWh of energy per annum. That's an average power consumption of 20W. But electric heaters are say 1200W or 2000W.
  - Avamander 2y ago
    That includes the lights and all the rest. That gives you like 3m³ (790 gallons) of 60°C (140°F) water. Which is really not a lot.

Nevermark 2y ago

Mini-split HVAC systems create both heated and cooled air, and send them to just the rooms they are needed, while also redistributing existing disparities of hot and cold. The latter being the most efficient HVAC mode of all. I could imagine at some point, all our heated and cooled air, water, and ice could be one system. For fast temperature demands, such as hot water or ice, perhaps reservoirs of chemically stored heat and cold could be built up at useful locations, for very high speed release when needed. Completely dispense with storing hot or cold air/water, except for fridges. But provide the cool air for them, as a byproduct of being one system, avoiding the local inefficiency of both cooling air in small quantities and generating heat at the same location. It would make it cheaper to have more fridges and ice makers around a houses, if you just had to plug them into power and an HVAC controlled "inlet/outlet".

nimish 2y ago
Correct! This is how some advanced systems already work in multifamily, where one room's excess heat is routed to another rooms lack of heat -- "Variable Refrigerant Flow" or VRF

nimish 2y ago

> Claiming heat from a fridge would be like grabbing a cup of water for a minute a few times a day. Did you know that people do this? The brits love making a cuppa tea. It's free energy and the heat pump in the fridge is already doing the work.