Quick question re engineering

[SoSolid]

I understand that but I dont think thats what applies in this context, if you're trying to cool the system down, why would you balance that out with work so that the temperature remains constant?

This is messin with my head now.

It means that whilst heat is being added to the system, the system is also losing energy in the form of heat at the system boundaries. The temperature would increase if the system was adiabatic (i.e. no heat transfer can take place at the system boundaries).

 

[p4radox]

The temperature would increase if the system was adiabatic (i.e. no heat transfer can take place at the system boundaries).

[Pedant]

but if it was adiabatic, you couldn't add heat either...