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A thermal switch (sometimes thermal reset or thermal cutout (TCO)) is a device which normally opens at a high temperature (often with a faint "plink" sound) and re-closes when the temperature drops. The thermal switch may be a bimetallic strip , often encased in a tubular glass bulb to protect it from dust or short circuit .
Thermoelectric cooling uses the Peltier effect to create a heat flux at the junction of two different types of materials. A Peltier cooler, heater, or thermoelectric heat pump is a solid-state active heat pump which transfers heat from one side of the device to the other, with consumption of electrical energy, depending on the direction of the current.
Although the thermostat may indicate the system is in defrost and electric heat is activated, the defrost function is not controlled by the thermostat. Since the heat pump has electric heat elements for supplemental and reheats, the heat pump thermostat provides for use of the electric heat elements should the refrigeration system fail.
Alternatively, a liquid-to-liquid or similar heat exchanger may be used instead. The high-temperature system transfers heat to a conventional condenser that carries the entire heat output of the system and may be passive, fan, or water-cooled. This is an auto-cascade process with two different refrigerants.
Common absorption refrigerators use a refrigerant with a very low boiling point (less than −18 °C (0 °F)) just like compressor refrigerators.Compression refrigerators typically use an HCFC or HFC, while absorption refrigerators typically use ammonia or water and need at least a second fluid able to absorb the coolant, the absorbent, respectively water (for ammonia) or brine (for water).
While this technique was originally applied to the refrigerator compartment, it was later used for freezer compartment as well. A combined refrigerator/freezer which applies self-defrosting to the refrigerator compartment only is usually called "partial frost free" or semi-automatic defrost (some brands call these "Auto Defrost" while Frigidaire referred to their semi-automatic models as ...
Refrigeration has many applications, including household refrigerators, industrial freezers, cryogenics, and air conditioning. [5] [6] [7] Heat pumps may use the heat output of the refrigeration process, and also may be designed to be reversible, but are otherwise similar to air conditioning units. [5]
A thermal expansion valve is a key element to a heat pump; this is the cycle that makes air conditioning, or air cooling, possible. A basic refrigeration cycle consists of four major elements: a compressor, a condenser, a metering device and an evaporator. As a refrigerant passes through a circuit containing these four elements, air ...