3 ms·
Can you cover a building in this and generate (some) electricity for the air conditioners when it's hot outside?
by 21 9y ago
Can you cover a building in this and generate (some) electricity for the air conditioners when it's hot outside?
- marshray 9y agoIANA thermodynamicist, but I suspect the resulting system could not be more efficient than either the heat pump or the pyroelectric charge pump by itself. So if this conversion process is really that great, you would end up replacing your heat pump with it instead of combining them. I think this only applies if we're constraining the temperatures to typical summer outdoor/indoor cooling applications. Different technologies are going to have different temperature ranges at which they are most efficient, so for something like steam power generation multi-stage systems are common.
- pjc50 9y agoNo, it requires a change in heat levels - you have to heat and cool the film on a rapid cycle while applying a varying electric field.
- mark-r 9y agoGenerating electricity would involve moving the heat through the device, which is counter-productive - it would move the heat back inside.