Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Refrigeration
I. Definition
II. History
Time-Line of Low Temperature Technology
a.) 1st Refrigeration System
b.) Wide Spread Commercial Use
c.) Home and Consumer Use
and then maintain it through a low range of temperatures. Cold is the “absence of heat”.
Hence, in order to decrease a temperature, one removes heat rather than “adding cold”.
In order to satisfy the second Law of Thermodynamics, some form of mechanical work
The use of ice to refrigerate and preserve food goes back to prehistoric times.
Throughout time, the seasonal harvesting of snow and ice was a regular practice of
ancient cultures; Chinese, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Persians. Ice and snow were stored
in caves or dugouts lined with straw or other insulating material. Retaining of ice
allowed the preservation of foods over warm periods. This practice worked well down
through the centuries, with ice houses remaining in use into the 20th century.i In the 16th
century, the discovery of chemical refrigeration was one of the 1st steps toward artificial
lowered the water temperature and created a sort of refrigeration bath of cooling
The 1st known method of artificial refrigeration was demonstrated by William Cullen at
pump to create a vacuum over a bottle of diethyl ether, which the boiled absorbing heat
from the surrounding air. This was recorded as creating a small amount of ice. And in
1758, Benjamin Franklin and John Hadley, conducted an experiment to explore the
principle of evaporation as a means to rapidly cool an object. They confirmed that the
evaporation of highly volatile liquids such as alcohol and ether could be used to drive
down the temperature of an object past its freezing point of water, 32 degrees F. They
used a bulb of mercury thermometer as their object and with a billows used to “quicken”
the evaporation process; lowered the temperature of the thermometer bulb down to 7
degrees F while the ambient temperature was 65 degrees F. A film of ice formed on the
surface of the thermometer; bulb and the ice mass was about a quarter inch thick.iii
In 1820, the British scientist, Michael Faraday liquefied ammonia and other gases by
using high pressure and low temperatures. And in 1834, Jacob Perkins living in Great
In 1842, John Gorrie, an American physicist, designed the 1st system for refrigerating
water to produce ice. He also introduced the idea of using this refrigeration system to
cool air for comfort in homes and hospitals, air conditioning. The compressed air system,
partially cooled the hot compressed air with water required to drive the air compression.
This process called “Isentropic Expansion” cooled the air to temperature low enough to
freeze water and produce ice, or to flow through a pipe for effecting refrigeration.v At
In the 1830’s refrigeration became widespread for commercial use. The breweries had
become the largest users of commercial refrigeration units. By the turn of the 20th
century, pollution and sewage began to creep into the natural ice, making it a problem in
the areas it was used. And breweries complained of tainted ice. This demand for more
modern and consumer ready-made refrigeration and ice making equipment grow larger.
By the 1900’s the meat packing houses of Chicago had adopted ammonia-cycled
artificial refrigeration. The meat packers, rail cars, and trucks were designed with
CFC), safer refrigeration were possible for home and consumer use. These refrigerants
were considered at the time to be less harmful than commonly used refrigerants.
However, in the 1970’s these man-made products were considered to be reacting with the
atmospheric ozone in a negative way, consequently, causing ozone depletion, and ultra
All processes that involve the generation or movement of heat are subject to basic
Thermodynamics is the conservation of energy. This law states that energy can neither
be created nor destroyed, but changes from one form to another. Within this closed
system, the total amount energy has remained constant. 2nd Law of Thermodynamics
deals with energy quality through the introduction of a term known as Entropy. In its
most basic form, the second law states that heat, when left alone will always flow from
the hotter object to the colder object. To reverse this process, such as in refrigeration,
will require work to be performed. By the performance of work, waste heat will be
rejected, ensuring that the useful energy available at the end of the process is always less
than the potential energy that was available from the fuel source at the beginning of the
process.vi
The movement of heat although it might be ambiguous at first sight it becomes clear that
heat manipulation during climate control requires clear and accurate terminology.
Specific Heat is the number of Btu’s required to raise one pound of a substance 1 degree
F. Water, because it is in huge supply, is standard for Specific Heat calculations. Such
as with specific heat of water at 1.00, 1 Btu is required to raise one pound of water 1
degree F.
Sensible Heat is the amount of heat added to a substance that will raise its temperature
without changing its state. For example, when heating a pot of water from 65 degrees F
Latent Heat is the energy required to change the state of a substance without changing its
temperature. Such as, when water reaches its boiling point at 212 degrees F, energy in
the form of heat must be added to the water in order to change it from a liquid to a vapor
state, steam. The opposite is true, when steam cools it condenses back to a liquid, energy
is now released. Super Heat is sensible heat that when added to a vapor above its boiling
point, will raise the temperature of the vapor. No change of state is involved in super-
heating. Hence, any heat that is added to steam that will, initially at a temperature of 212
degrees F, super heat the steam, raising its temperature. Note, this process that uses super
heat requires special piping and handling provisions for the super heated vapor. High
Properties of air are the qualities of climate controlled air which are important if
the effects of heating or cooling systems are to be maximized for the highest of efficiency
and comfort. Temperature measurements for climate control purposes are made in one of
two ways. Dry bulb temperatures reading is taken with a standard thermometer in a
conventional manner. A wet bulb temperature reading is taken by putting a wet cloth or
wick over a bulb of the thermometer. Usually the thermometer is placed in the middle of
a stream of circulating air; the moisture in the cloth surrounding the thermometer bulb
evaporates in the moving air stream, lowering the temperature reading on the
thermometer. The amount of moisture that evaporates from the bulb wick depends on the
relative humidity in the air stream and will have a direct effect on the temperature
reading. The difference between the wet bulb and dry bulb temperature readings is an
Two classifications of moisture and humidity are of interest in the climate control
technology. One is Relative Humidity which refers to the amount of moisture in the air
relative to the amount of moisture that the air can hold at the particular temperature. The
other is Dew Point Temperature. This is the temperature at which moisture condense on
the surface. Dew-Point Temperature is a function of both air temperature and Relative
Humidity.
moving down hill, from high to low which is the normal movement when an object is
unobstructed. The heat movement in reverse is considered work because it goes against
the normal flow, from high to low, such as in an air conditioned system where heat is
extracted from a home with an indoor temperature of 78 degrees F and is moved to the
moved from a warm area to another area in which the temperature is greater.
Conduction refers to the transfer of heat between two objects that are in direct contact
with each other. Conductive transfer involves the movement of heat from the hotter to
the cooler object. In this process, the principle of thermal conductivity, the ability of a
substance to either conduct or retard the flow of heat, is most important. This process
involves several basic factors: The Thermal Conductivity, “K”, of the substance; the
temperature difference between the two objects; the amount of surface area of two
objects in contact; and the length of time that the two objects remain in contact. The “R”
value is referred to as the building material’s resistance to the flow of heat. K & R are
mathematical reciprocals of each other. The greater the R-value the greater will be the
insulating characteristics of the building material. Convection heat transfer involves the
transfer of heat aided by moving fluids. For the purposes of our definition, fluids may be
thought of as either gases or liquids. For example, in a typical hot-water heater, water
that is heated by combustion of a burner mechanism located at the bottom of the heater
rises as it is heated. Cooler water, which is denser than the lighter heated water, drops to
the bottom of the water heater vessel. In this way, a convective flow is established in the
water heater that aids in the heating process. Common in all heating systems, hot air rises
and cooler air drops to take its place, setting up convective air currents within the heated
room. Radiation involves the transfer of heat through air as one might experience heat
when standing in front of a fire place. Heat is radiated from the wood fire as waves of
electromagnetic energy. It’s interesting to note that radiant energy does not require a
medium through which to travel. For example, radiant energy from the sun travels
The effects of heat on gases and liquids are well known. There are three states of
existence of matter. In a solid state, the substance has a fixed shape and volume. In its
liquid state, a substance will have a fixed volume with no particular shape. In its gaseous
state, the substance has neither a fixed shape nor volume. Gases, liquids, and solids react
in predictable ways to changes in temperature. Solids expand when they are heated and
contract when cooled. The only exception to this rule is water, which contracts as it is
begins to expand. The predictable nature of expansion and contraction is important when