There seems to be a lower size limit for conventional, compressor-based refrigeration. The result is that portable cooling devices are always simple fans, or at best, evaporative cooling units. What prevents conventional refrigeration and air conditioning from working at sizes much smaller than a dorm refrigerator?
In: Technology
For fridges, the main issue is lack of demand. There are small devices that use the Peltier effect instead of a compressor but they’re not very efficient.
With air conditioners, the fundamental issue is that you can’t just make heat disappear; you can only make it colder inside by making it hotter outside. A portable unit would need an indoor and outdoor part with pipes linking the two, or maybe fit in an open window space without letting too much air leak in around it. That doesn’t sound very portable. And air conditioners need much more power than a fan, making the compressor motor big, heavy and noisy, and the condenser needs to be big as well, even for quite a small room.
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