A household cooling and heating appliance can operate either as a refrigerator or as…

PHYSICS · Multi-part · A Level · Physics · Engineering physics · Engineering physics

Problem

A household cooling and heating appliance can operate either as a refrigerator or as a heat pump while working between the same two temperature reservoirs. (i) Define the coefficient of performance (COP) of (a) a refrigerator and (b) a heat pump. (ii) Without performing any numerical calculation, state which of the two COPs is numerically larger for a given pair of reservoirs and give a clear physical reason for your answer. (iii) The appliance works between an interior temperature of 270 K270\,\text{K} and an exterior temperature of 300 K300\,\text{K}. Explain qualitatively how the numerical difference in the two COPs would influence the choice of operating mode in summer and in winter.

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