Science Frozen Dinners and My Carbon Footprint: A Question

jidar · 02-19-2009, 11:24 PM

Ultimately the TV dinner is going to achieve the same temperature before you eat it regardless of if you let it defrost on your desk or keep it frozen.

So the question becomes, what is the more efficient means of heat, heating it with your central office heating system or heating it with the microwave?

Radiation is a more efficient means of heat transfer than convection, but mostly because convection heats up so much more than just the target (it heats up all the air space!) but since you were doing that anyway then perhaps then you can't consider that lost energy. Also, microwaves are tuned for speed and thus use a massive amount of power to radiate heat into the food in the shortest time possible.

In any case, Logic tells me that microwaves are tuned for speed, not efficiency while central heating systems are precisely the opposite, so to this end my feeling is that even in the winter it is better to let the tv dinner thaw on the counter first to minimize the amount of time you spent with the microwave on.
However, I could be wrong.

View Poll Results: In the winter, it's more environmentally responsible to...
...put your frozen dinner in the freezer.	3	27.27%
...leave your frozen dinner on your desk.	4	36.36%
...stop eating completely.	2	18.18%
Y'know, this would make a great class project.	2	18.18%
Voters: 11. You may not vote on this poll

02-19-2009, 11:24 PM	#7
jidar MVP Join Date: May 2005 Location: a Casino cash: $10004900	Ultimately the TV dinner is going to achieve the same temperature before you eat it regardless of if you let it defrost on your desk or keep it frozen. So the question becomes, what is the more efficient means of heat, heating it with your central office heating system or heating it with the microwave? Radiation is a more efficient means of heat transfer than convection, but mostly because convection heats up so much more than just the target (it heats up all the air space!) but since you were doing that anyway then perhaps then you can't consider that lost energy. Also, microwaves are tuned for speed and thus use a massive amount of power to radiate heat into the food in the shortest time possible. In any case, Logic tells me that microwaves are tuned for speed, not efficiency while central heating systems are precisely the opposite, so to this end my feeling is that even in the winter it is better to let the tv dinner thaw on the counter first to minimize the amount of time you spent with the microwave on. However, I could be wrong.
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