We’ve been telling you magnets are cool for years now, but could magnets soon be replacing our refrigerator technology? With new findings from the researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames Laboratory, magnetic refrigeration could be on the horizon. If this method is successful, it could replace the 100-year old concept of gas compression refrigeration and be up to 30% more energy efficient, saving consumers energy and money. Using small quantities of magnetocaloric materials, the Ames Laboratory researchers have created an advanced device that can cool objects. Magnetocaloric? Sounds Fattening Magnetic refrigeration, which the Ames Laboratory device would use, is based on the magnetocaloric effect. This technique can reach not only commercial refrigeration temperatures, but extremely low temperatures that would leave a penguin shivering. One magnetic refrigerating device was able to cool a gas down to one-half-billionth of a degree above absolute zero (-460 Fahrenheit)! When a piece of metal sits uninhibited, its electrons spin and move however they please. When a magnet is applied, these electrons get in formation and adjust their spin to match their comrades. Even though these little guys are mostly uniform, they’re still allowed to vibrate a little more violently. This vibration is better known as heat. Magnetic Refrigeration! But we’re not talking about heat here, we’re talking about cooling, right? Well, the magnetocaloric effect works both way. If a piece of metal that was under the influence of a magnetic field has that field removed, the metal cools. If helium is applied to the metal while it’s under in the magnetic field, when the field is taken away, even more heat is removed, cooling the object even further. The device designed by the team at the U.S. Department of Energy took about 5 months to create but the concept has been 20 years coming. The team is now exploring other material options to determine if the device can be scaled up for commercial purposes. We are thrilled to learn that our assertions of magnets coolness has been validated by scientific evidence! Hopefully, we’ll see magnetocaloric refrigerators at our local home goods stores soon. Until then, keep up-to-date on all other magnet-related news on our blog here.