4 ms·
Because heat is pure entropy; it's what you ultimately end up with after electricity has been used to do work, and the process is irreversible due to the Second
by codewiz 10y ago
Because heat is pure entropy; it's what you ultimately end up with after electricity has been used to do work, and the process is irreversible due to the Second Law of Thermodynamics:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics#General_significance_of_the_law https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_law_of_thermodynamics#G...
Only a difference in heat levels can still be converted to electricity, for instance by reverse Peltier effect: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermoelectric_cooling
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- creshal 10y agoAnd on a space station, most of your heat differential is created by active cooling, so recovering that via Peltier elements is a bit… counter productive.
- choosername 10y agoThe Second Law of Thermodynamics just means the conversion can't be a hundred percent efficient. Indeed, I didn't think of that as a problem.