ELI5, How can we warm things like food up (ovens) and cool them down (freezers) with electricity?
In: Technology
Electricity and heat are both energy, although different *forms* of energy. Heating and cooling works slightly different, though.
In an oven, electricity is converted to heat by running it through a wire with a high resistance. This causes energy losses in the form of heat, which dissipates out into the oven, heating the food. Simply put, we convert electrical energy into heat.
In a freezer, we use the electricity to run a system of pipes and valves. Through some clever engineering, we can force a liquid called refrigerant to evaporate into a gas and the condense back into a liquid. When this happens the refrigerant, because of how our universe works, *has* to take in or give away energy. By taking in energy inside the freezer and giving it away outside the freezer, we can move the heat from inside the freezer to outside the freezer. This is why the back of your freezer is warm and shouldn’t stand directly against the wall!
Edit: Spelling.
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