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Comment by gkhartman | Hacker News Reader

Oddly enough, I saw quite a few of the doorless variety while on vacation in Hawaii. It seemed like every supermarket had at least one bank of doorless fridges. They run 24/7 on an island with 100% humidity and crazy high energy costs.

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But presumably any escaping cold air is just cooling the store which would have been cooled anyways?

No, because the heat is rejected inside of the store. So there is actually a net temperature increase in the store

Only the really small units for mom-and-pop stores do it, the supermarket-sized ones have the compressors and condensers outside the building. I know because a brother-in-law's company sells them.

Not always, I have seen such fridges with ducts running the hot air out. Or as othees mention, the heatpump outside and gas piping.

Still losses to have to cool down to 5 Celsius instead of 20 Celsius though, makes the heat pump a lot less energy efficient.

It's like a heat pump setup backwards. Instead of providing efficient heat in the winter, it provides in-efficient heat in year round.

While the compressor just below the fridge is heating the store?

Fridges in stores typically have the condensor coils (the bit that gets hot) placed outdoors. That's why they're expensive to install and can't be moved around by the store staff.

If home refrigerators did the same, it would reduce your electric bill quite a lot, especially in places where A/C is used.

Sounds like an interesting idea for reducing energy consumption. Homes already have air ducts for washers/driers. Why can't be something for fridges too? Home fridges are almost never moved anyway.

I suspect the gain in efficiency is not too compelling compared to the increased up-front costs.

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