I wonder if I’m understanding this correctly: is something like sweating an example of refrigeration, since it keeps the low temperature thing from heating up? And heat pumps are different, they keep a hot thing from cooling down, but otherwise the underlying thermodynamic processes are similar?
If I’ve got that straight, is any evaporative cooling an example of refrigeration, but the question here is specifically wondering about heat pumps not refrigerators?
Sweating is an example of evaporative cooling, but the fancy part of refrigeration and heat pumps is the compressor, which does work on the coolant that results in the coolant moving heat from a colder part of the loop to a warmer part of the loop.
Sweating takes heat out of the skin, but in nature the water vapor then has to move all the way to somewhere cooler than body temperature before it will condense back into rain; if you follow the water cycle it’s moving heat from a hotter location to a cooler location.
I think the spirit of the original question was “is there a natural system that moves heat from a cool part of the world to a warmer part of the world?”
For what it’s worth, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler takes the perspective (in one paragraph) that “Vapor-compression refrigeration uses evaporative cooling, but the evaporated vapor is within a sealed system, and is then compressed ready to evaporate again, using energy to do so.” So, in this perspective, evaporative cooling is a part of the system and forced recirculation (requiring the energy source mentioned in the question) is another.
heat pumps not refrigerators
Note that what is colloquially called a heat pump is the same fundamental thing as a refrigerator — equipment is referred to as a “heat pump” when it is used for heating rather than, or in addition to, cooling, but the processes and principles are the same (with the addition of a “reversing valve” so that the direction of operation may be changed, when both heating and cooling are wanted).
I wonder if I’m understanding this correctly: is something like sweating an example of refrigeration, since it keeps the low temperature thing from heating up? And heat pumps are different, they keep a hot thing from cooling down, but otherwise the underlying thermodynamic processes are similar?
If I’ve got that straight, is any evaporative cooling an example of refrigeration, but the question here is specifically wondering about heat pumps not refrigerators?
Sweating is an example of evaporative cooling, but the fancy part of refrigeration and heat pumps is the compressor, which does work on the coolant that results in the coolant moving heat from a colder part of the loop to a warmer part of the loop.
Sweating takes heat out of the skin, but in nature the water vapor then has to move all the way to somewhere cooler than body temperature before it will condense back into rain; if you follow the water cycle it’s moving heat from a hotter location to a cooler location.
I think the spirit of the original question was “is there a natural system that moves heat from a cool part of the world to a warmer part of the world?”
For what it’s worth, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evaporative_cooler takes the perspective (in one paragraph) that “Vapor-compression refrigeration uses evaporative cooling, but the evaporated vapor is within a sealed system, and is then compressed ready to evaporate again, using energy to do so.” So, in this perspective, evaporative cooling is a part of the system and forced recirculation (requiring the energy source mentioned in the question) is another.
Note that what is colloquially called a heat pump is the same fundamental thing as a refrigerator — equipment is referred to as a “heat pump” when it is used for heating rather than, or in addition to, cooling, but the processes and principles are the same (with the addition of a “reversing valve” so that the direction of operation may be changed, when both heating and cooling are wanted).