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Finally! Now we can have an air conditioner that does not require a pipe to blow the hot air outside. Like truly mobile unit.

by 988747 5y ago

vlmutolo 5y ago
Unfortunately we'll always need the pipe to blow air outside. The heat has to go somewhere. Even with this invention, if they're converting heat to electricity, they will have to release at least as much heat as they converted to electricity.
- john_yaya 5y ago
  Indeed, this can be demonstrated by running current through a plain old Peltier cooler without a big chunky heat sink attached. At first the cooler will have one side heat up and the other side get quite cold, but within a few minutes the entire block becomes evenly warm.
- noselasd 5y ago
  Eh, doesn't all modern air conditioner just do heat exchanging? no need to actually blow the air out - but yes you still need a pipe for the heat exchanging medium
layoutIfNeeded 5y ago
That’s thermodynamically impossible.
- flavius29663 5y ago
  Why? You could theoretically take out energy from the room in the form of electricity
  - layoutIfNeeded 5y ago
    You can’t. The second law of thermodynamics prohibits it. “It is impossible to devise a cyclically operating device, the sole effect of which is to absorb energy in the form of heat from a single thermal reservoir and to deliver an equivalent amount of work.”
    - jodrellblank 5y ago
      How does having a hot side of a piece of material and a cold side of a piece of material come under "cyclically operating"?
    - rpmisms 5y ago
      Perhaps not an equivalent amount of work, but if we could capture some of the waste....
- jkgktnrnfnf 5y ago
  Not true. For example you could convert the heat into photons (infrared radiation) and beam that out of the room without needing a pipe. You would probably need an infrared transparent patch on the window to aim at. https://spie.org/news/5129-a-metamaterial-to-convert-heat-to-light https://spie.org/news/5129-a-metamaterial-to-convert-heat-to...

Finally! Now we can have an air conditioner that does not require a pipe to blow the hot air outside. Like truly mobile unit.

by 988747 5y ago

Finally! Now we can have an air conditioner that does not require a pipe to blow the hot air outside. Like truly mobile unit.

vlmutolo 5y ago

Unfortunately we'll always need the pipe to blow air outside. The heat has to go somewhere. Even with this invention, if they're converting heat to electricity, they will have to release at least as much heat as they converted to electricity.

john_yaya 5y ago
Indeed, this can be demonstrated by running current through a plain old Peltier cooler without a big chunky heat sink attached. At first the cooler will have one side heat up and the other side get quite cold, but within a few minutes the entire block becomes evenly warm.
noselasd 5y ago
Eh, doesn't all modern air conditioner just do heat exchanging? no need to actually blow the air out - but yes you still need a pipe for the heat exchanging medium

layoutIfNeeded 5y ago

That’s thermodynamically impossible.

flavius29663 5y ago
Why? You could theoretically take out energy from the room in the form of electricity
- layoutIfNeeded 5y ago
  You can’t. The second law of thermodynamics prohibits it. “It is impossible to devise a cyclically operating device, the sole effect of which is to absorb energy in the form of heat from a single thermal reservoir and to deliver an equivalent amount of work.”
  - jodrellblank 5y ago
    How does having a hot side of a piece of material and a cold side of a piece of material come under "cyclically operating"?
  - rpmisms 5y ago
    Perhaps not an equivalent amount of work, but if we could capture some of the waste....
jkgktnrnfnf 5y ago
Not true. For example you could convert the heat into photons (infrared radiation) and beam that out of the room without needing a pipe. You would probably need an infrared transparent patch on the window to aim at. https://spie.org/news/5129-a-metamaterial-to-convert-heat-to-light https://spie.org/news/5129-a-metamaterial-to-convert-heat-to...