Ventilation for integrated fridge freezers Ask questions and find answers to many subjects relating to electrics and electrical work

[rogerjames]

I'm looking at IKEA's Frostig BCF228/64 integrated 70/30 fridgefreezer as it has auto defrost on both compartments - and a 5 year guarantee!

The FF has a depth of 560mm and width of 540mm. The housing unit is 570mm wide and deep, so I'm OK on the width, but is 10mm suffient at the rear? I know I have to provide top and bottom venting of 200cm2.

IKEA can't answer this question and Whirlpool's (the manufacturer) customer support team can't find this model on their system....and there's nothing shown in the instruction manual.

Thanks

[ericmark]

Back to basics. The unit removes heat from inside the box and transfers it to outside the box. The easier this heat can then be transferred to the surroundings the better. Vents to outside will help it work more efficient as the cooler the air around the condenser the better.

Working on commercial units it was common to install fans to remove the heat and the chimney effect will help. Even in a caravan I installed a fan to ensure the heat went outside and not into the caravan which kept the caravan cool.

So vent at bottom and top of unit will cause more air to flow than vent at 1/3 and 2/3 of the height. (chimney effect) this is why chefs wear tall hats it gets the air to flow assuming they have the flutes to allow it and are not just for show.

It is one reason why old steam engines had tall chimneys. So because it depends on air flow rather than just the gap there will be no fixed distance.