They literally do that already. Heat doesn’t vanish from your food. It’s moved from the inside of the box to the outside of the box.
It’s an air conditioner built into a cooler.
this post was submitted on 23 Apr 2026
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Fridges have always been doing that for ages. I'd rather not let them dump heat indoors and instead move the heat directly outdoors to keep my air conditioner from running too hard.
Can anyone explain why almost everyone operates a fridge inside a heated house in winter while there is "a fridge outside". Would the fridge not need less power to cool down the insides when it's already cold outside?
Am I really the only one in this world with a fridge outside?
Fridge is expensive, only have one.
Fridge is large and heavy, not worth trouble of moving outside.
Waste heat from fridge go to heating house anyway with efficiency above typical resistive heater can manage before even consider double benefit of also cooling food.
Maybe someone will do the math.
This was originally what cellars and basements were for. Ground temperature was stable relative to outside temperatures, so it was warmer than freezing during winter but colder than outside during summer. Thus it could help preserve food.
Some old farm houses still have that around here. But it is outside below a small hill or a slope. Some call it Kartoffel Keller. And some still use it for long time storage.
Sometimes they’re called a “root cellar” in the US, as they were often used for storing root vegetables; carrots, turnips and potatoes. So common etymology there.
- Stability. Temperature outside fluctuates, food could freeze or get too warm.
- Containment. The fridge prevents critters from getting to your food.
- Location. The fridge is conveniently located in the kitchen.
In winter I do tend to keep drinks outside if the temps are alright, they cool down faster outside than in a fridge anyway.
I am using a fridge outside: It is like a small balcony first floor with a roof and cool most of the year. So #1 and #2 are checked. For #3 I have a small Japanese compressor fridge in the kitchen, only for the very important daily things like milk. The mustard stays in the outside fridge. The kitchen fridge never uses more than 30W for cooling. But only IF it runs. So that checks #3.
if you're already heating your home, then what does it hurt to have the fridge do a bit more of that?
in fact, the fridge is a tiny heat pump using your food as the reservoir. so unless your house is heat pump equipped, it is beneficial energy wise to keep the fridge inside.
if your house is heat pump equipped, then it depends on how the efficiency compare. if you put lots of hot food into your fridge then you should definitely keep it inside.
Don't forget that refrigeration is costly tech magic though. Power hungry and requires toxic chemicals.
Real easy answer: keeping a fridge cool during a very hot summer outside requires a more powerful cooling system. Instead most people have a powerful AC since you want the house cool anyway, with a cheaper fridge cooling system
The reverse is also true. You wouldnt want your fridge to require a heater installed in it to keep your food from freezing in esspecially cold winters
Mucki said in winter.
To your second point, if I can deduce by the feddit.org that Mucki is in Germany, the winter outside temp will swing between -5° and +10°. The isolation of the fridge might be enough. But I sometimes put a stew or soup just outside on the balcony without a fridge.
We have only very few days where we have extreme icecoldness around. It's a moderate climate. I never monitored how much less power it uses outside than inside... But It stricked me that the cooling cycles are much shorter in winter after I had put it outside.
That's... Kind of what it already does though. It's just that it's not cooling the inside enough to heat very much of your house.
Why did I have to scroll to the bottom to find this? Like, where did you think the removed heat was going otherwise???
Heat is stored in the microwave.
Wow, I wooshed myself even harder than they to whomst I was replying. Good job me.
HVAC is just the Patrick star push the city meme with heat
Okay, but hear me out. If you reverse it, you'll have a heat pump oven that also cools your house. 🤓
a heat pump oven sounds like an actually cool idea. why is it not a thing yet?
The difference between oven temperature and room temperature is too high for it to be efficient. Like, a fridge is maybe cooling things 30F (~15C) maybe 50 (~25) for the freezer. An oven goes to like 500F 260C, so it would have to maintain a heat differential of like 430 (~215) degrees. Like, it’s just less efficient than a resistive coil at that point.
Would be great for people that love yogurt.
weird kitchen, if i am cooking on the stove and i want an ingredient from the fridge, i have to walk around that wall, and we know that's something we do multiple times
I mean, it's AI generated, so it isn't going to make sense lol
A very "not like that" Cooking Triangle.
And the fov is likely from a hallway, dining, or living room. All weirder choices for a normal fridge if you decide on a separate kitchen. Then again everything in the pic screams unthought-out/unpleasant layout of a western suburban hellscape.
if you're cooking on the stove but the fridge is next to you and pumping out lots of heat that heat may inadvertently make your food overcooked.
the startup entrepreneurs have thought this through. give them some credit.
Or the heat could be used for cooking kebab on a vertical rotisserie. Which is more convenient done away from the stove, on the other side of the wall, facing the living room.
Id rather have one that sends it's heat outside the house so my AC isn't fighting the fridge. And reverse that in the winter.
The fridge would actually have to work harder though, to maintain a larger temperature difference between its hot and cold sides. So it'll likely use more energy than the way fridges normally work.
In winter, if it's cold enough outside, refrigeration may not actually be needed. You could just pump coolant between inside the fridge and an external radiator to cool it.
But, now you have a more complicated system that requires more permanent installation into the house, and also has an outdoor radiator that needs to be maintained so it doesn't get clogged with leaves or damaged.
The fridge would actually have to work harder though, to maintain a larger temperature difference between its hot and cold sides. So it'll likely use more energy than the way fridges normally work.
I think their idea is to still use the chill air from the room for cooling the heat exchanger of the fridge, but transporting the then hotter air outside of the house (like a proper kitchen hood does) instead of keeping it in the kitchen.
Not too worried about how permanent the installation is. I mean how often do you move the fridge around your kitchen? Besides, these days a lot of them have a water faucet installed for the ice maker anyway. As for efficiency, the AC has to fight the same gradient already, but with the heat being dumped inside it has to overcome it twice.
It would add complexity and points of breakage, so it would need to be a robust enough system to make it worth it, which fights against it adding enough efficiency to be worth it.
Considering that there are news about newer smart fridges displaying ads. Then as soon as that happens.
Throwing a standard fridge out the window can already be kinda difficult.
Doing it to something that's permanently installed is going to be much harder, though maybe more cathartic due to needing to use a crowbar.
I'm not sure that it would he equivalent - the AC has to fight a smaller temperature difference between outside and inside.
Also, I am not sure how much it'd really save for the extra complexity. A lower maintenance way of improving overall efficiency could maybe be some way of capturing that heat to warm water a bit, so that could save your water heater some work by preheating it perhaps. That would keep all plumbing internal, and the fridge may even fight a smaller temperature difference, since tap water is usually cold. Though now if your water heater and "warm water" tank are full what do you do for the fridge?
I do think that "better insulation for the house" or "just a more efficient fridge" probably trumps any of these changes in terms of energy saving for your investment in many cases.
permanent installation into the house
We have those. Built in fridges are hella expensive.
outdoor radiator that needs to be maintained so it doesn’t get clogged with leaves or damaged
Ditto. Just not hooked to the fridge.
In winter,
Weirdly, winter can require heating the fridge. Also, depending, it can be really hard on the pump. There are specific fridges made to handle garages (most people use a junk fridge and put low value items that do not require refrigeration, but are more enjoyable cold, in it.).
I do this in rimworld to get just a little bit more heat in winter
what a genius.