Question

- Lets say that an empty fridge is 1 cubic feet in volume. The HVAC guy measured the air in the fridge and it shows the wet bulb and dry bulb temperatures on his instrument. I quickly place a jar of pickles (300 ml) which contains about 2/3 volume in water in the fridge. In which direction is the wet bulb and dry bulb temperatures that the instrument reads expected to change. If I leave the fridge door closed, what will be the equilibrium wet and dry bulb temperatures be.

Answer 1

Inside the refrigerator the relative humidity will be maintained constantly at a given set temperature of the fridge. Now the wet bulb temperatures is constant for given set temperature (dry bulb temperature) and relative humidity. After placing a bowl of picked with 2/3 of water inside fridge will cause initially a slight raise in relative humidity and dry bulb temperature which inturn raise wet bulb temperature slightly. Once the inside fridge environment reaches equilibrium, the temperature will come to set temperature and the relative humidity and wet bulb temperature will come back to previous values.