system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Does leaving a refrigerator door opened for about 20 seconds actually use up a large enough amount of energy/ power to consider not leaving it open for that long?

I'm at my parent's house, and they think that when I open the fridge and leave it open its a huge waste in energy.

I'll open it up and grab some iced tea or something, walk over to the table to pour it, and put it back in the fridge. It takes like 20 seconds, tops. Is enough energy or power being wasted here to actually be mindful of leaving the door opened?
gpt
I vaguely recall actually calculating this for a question long ago.

The answer is basically no, it's not a huge waste. For starters, the air in the refrigerator is essentially stagnant; you're not going to get a large amount of mixing of the cold air with the surroundings in the span of 20 seconds, unless you have a fan pointing at it. Secondly, if you have a decently stocked fridge, the thermal mass of the physical items inside it (think of a fully stocked beer fridge), and the walls of the fridge, is far higher than the thermal mass of the air.