Heat Pumps 101: ‘Natural’ vs. ‘Artificial’ Heat Transfer Processes

This is the fourth in a series of Heat Pump 101 videos from instructor and author, John Siegenthaler, P.E.. “Three Modes of Heat Transfer” was the previous lesson in the series. You can enroll in John’s Heat Pump 101 course for free to learn the very basics of heat pumps in less than an hour.

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Natural vs. Artificial processes of heat transfer:

There are many natural processes by which heat will move from a higher temperature material to a lower temperature material. And any of the three modes of heat transfer, conduction, convection, and thermal radiation that we talked about could be at play in these processes.

Heat transfer will occur whenever there’s a temperature difference. A a cup of coffee cooling as it sits on a counter is an example of a natural cooling process, as is a wood stove cooling off as the fire goes out.

These are all examples of natural processes, simply the idea that heat moves from an area of higher temperature to an area of lower temperature.

The next video in this series is covers how heat can be moved from cold air into a warm house. If you want to see that video now or jump ahead to the others, you can find them all in John Siegenthaler’s free Heat Pump 101 course.