Void for fridge do you need it?

[zendo]

In our kitchen we have a cupboard above our fridge behind the cupboard there is a void which is vented to the roof cavity.I know its to get rid of the heat from the fridge but do you realy need it? The reason i ask is there is a lot of cold air being drawn in through this void now that its getting colder.

[ozwinner]

New houses dont have it.

Al

[Grunt]

If your fridge has good ventilation it will work much more efficiently.

It might be worthwhile making it so you can close the vent in winter when your fridge doesn't work so hard and open it in summer.

[Bleedin Thumb]

I think its a good idea to leave that void as a vent. besides heat there is also a lot of condensation produced by auto defrost fridges.

When I built my units which where 600mm deep I made the overheads 300 deep with the void at the back. The rational was that you don't want cupboards too deep up at that height as you can't see in the back and things will get lost and forgoten about.
The thought was good ... but.... I wish they were 450 mm deep now - 300 is a tad too shallow.
Also my unit doesn't join the ceiling via a bulkhead arrangement so the void doesn't go into the ceiling cavity so I don't have the heat loss problem.
You could probably plug the ceiling vent and vent out of the side of your unit if the heat loss was significant?

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

It also depends on how snugly the 'frig fits into it's spot and whether it has inbuilt vents at the top/base for airflow. If 'tis surrounded on all sides by cabinetry with little clearance, then a void is a damned good idea.

It becomes a must if the 'frig is "built into" the cabinetry and hidden behind a door.

I wonder if 'tis possible to buy a vent with an inbuilt thermocouple, so it only opens when the inside temp is above a certain figure?

[Jedo_03]

Our fridge and freezer are built into a recess that's open on one side and has a shelf for storing stuff above it... all up, some 1500mm deep...
But void of a venting void to the outside world...
the "heat" from the fridge and freezer provides a temperate zone for the secondary fermentation of our home brew...
excess "heat" disperses to the whole back of our house...
why'd you need an outside vent specially for the bit of heat generated from a couple of condenser motors...
In our house we have a flue-less gas heater, an electric oven, a gas stove-top (granted, with a range hood that vents steam to the outside world via a 2-speed fan)...
The "natural" vents (under doors, up through the AC ducts) provide enough draughts to equalise the internal humidity to the external humidity...
Yeah... our doors sometimes DO swell a bit... But I'd say it was more to do with the EXTERNAL humidity than the internal...
Seems to me that creating a void to the outside world is just inviting the outside conditions inside...
Well, that my way of thinking...

[Honorary Bloke]

New houses dont have it.

Al

Wot he said.

Refrigeration technology has come a long way recently. Fridges now vent out the front at the top, bottom, or both. Close off that cold hole!

[Harry72]

You can have the vent so it comes out above the cabinet.

[Tankstand]

Our twin door unit has the heat exchangers in the side walls so it can be pushed up against the rear wall.

[renomart]

A 30mm gap around the top and sides is deemed to be sufficient for most fridge manufacturers.

The reason there is a gap behind fridge cabinets is because wall units are 300 - 340mm deep. Therefore using a 600mm deep fridge panel - 340mm deep wall cabinet = 260mm void.

[totoblue]

In our kitchen we have a cupboard above our fridge behind the cupboard there is a void which is vented to the roof cavity.I know its to get rid of the heat from the fridge but do you realy need it? The reason i ask is there is a lot of cold air being drawn in through this void now that its getting colder.

There is a chapter on refrigeration in the book "Sustainable House" by Michael Mobbs (Choice Books). He suggests, for efficiency's sake, ventilation for fridges so that air is drawn up through the floor, past the fridge and up through the ceiling. He hasn't done this himself (at least in the 1998 edition that I have) because he didn't allow for it/didn't realise early enough in the design phase.

The fridge itself would want air as cold as possible so that it doesn't have to work as hard. Mobbs says the fridge would be 25% more efficient if it has good ventilation.

You can probably find this book at the library or buy it at
http://www.choice.com.au/viewProduct.aspx?sku=SUSH
http://www.sustainablehouse.com.au/

IMHO, if you have vents in the floor and the ceiling, then you could seal the cooling coils of the fridge into the vented zone with some kind of weatherseal, so that air doesn't leak into or out of the house. If you have no floor vents, then you should arrange to be able to close the top vent in winter. This will probably make the fridge less energy efficient, but it will make the house heating system more energy efficient, which is probably more important in winter and would probably result in a net energy saving.