The Fridge in the Kitchen
2025-05-21 07:28 - General
For a while now, but somewhat rarely, I've noticed a strange jittery sort of sawtooth pattern to the graph of the temperature in my kitchen. (I've got sensors scattered around the house, to enhance decisions around comfort and energy expenditure.)
More recently, I added an energy sensor to the refrigerator. (I was doing some specific appliance energy measurements, as part of research into a solar power project.) Given a relatively stable outdoor temperature, so little baseline change, the kitchen temperature jaggies showed up. And I just realized: I'm measuring the waste heat of the refrigerator! It kicks on roughly once an hour, and the temperature jaggies turn upwards with the same cadence. (With a little delay, because the sensor is in the opposite corner of the room as the fridge.)
