Waste heat is by necessity produced both by
machines that do
work and in other processes that use
energy, for example in a refrigerator warming the room air or a combustion engine releasing heat into the environment. The need for many systems to reject heat as a by-product of their operation is fundamental to the
laws of thermodynamics. Waste heat has lower utility (or in thermodynamics lexicon a lower
exergy or higher
entropy) than the original energy source. Sources of waste heat include all manner of human activities, natural systems, and all organisms. Rejection of unneeded cold (as from a heat pump) is also a form of waste heat (i.e. the medium has heat, but at a lower temperature than is considered warm).