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I’m generally curious after reading this, what effect does our molten core have on our ambient surface temperature? I can’t imagine much, but it can’t be nil, a
by donatj 4y ago
I’m generally curious after reading this, what effect does our molten core have on our ambient surface temperature? I can’t imagine much, but it can’t be nil, and I genuinely have no idea.
- icegreentea2 4y agoWiki says it's basically nil: > The flow of heat from Earth's interior to the surface is estimated at 47±2 terawatts And > Despite its geological significance, Earth's interior heat contributes only 0.03% of Earth's total energy budget at the surface, which is dominated by 173,000 TW of incoming solar radiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_internal_heat_budget https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_internal_heat_budget
- donatj 4y agoThank you so much for the link, there is a lot in here that is genuinely fascinating! For instance heat from the surface “thus penetrates only several tens of centimeters on the daily cycle and only several tens of meters on the annual cycle”
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoThis is why ground source heat pumps are suprisingly effective. You're drawing on the yearly solar inflow to the ground, at a depth where the temperature is quite stable, due to accumulating and averaging over years.
- DLTADragonHawk 4y agoMy curiosity in using things like heat pumps is that what happens when you move too much of that heat energy away. The heat might be doing nothing but, it has been there for a long time. At what point is too much heat displaced to the surface and what is the outcome of that?
- ZeroGravitas 4y agoFor them to actually work the energy needs to be replaced, flowing from the hot areas to the (relatively) cold areas, mostly coming from the sun. If you have a small area and continually pump the heat out then you end up with the inside of a freezer, which uses the same tech for exactly that purpose, but also intentionally insulates to prevent the heat getting back in.
- antisthenes 4y agoYou can read about what happened to the London underground over the years. Except the process has been sort of reversed: there was heat being introduced into the deep layers of clay and rock. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_cooling https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_cooling
- aronhegedus 4y agoIt's probably similar to the fact that wind turbines don't stop wind around the world :D
- soco 4y agoThey actually do, a bit: https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-05/fyi-do-wind-farms-make-it-less-windy/ https://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-05/fyi-do-wind-f...
- pantulis 4y agoThats for sure but, where does that energy come from? I would say it comes from the earths own rotation, would this infinitesimally slow the earth rotation? Anyway this is fascinating stuff!
- pantulis 4y agoI also read that Quaise value proposal is drilling a 20km deep hole but once you reach there, how do you transform that into usable energy? Push water to extract vapor?
- u320 4y agoYes pump water down, extract supercritical steam coming out and then just use a regular turbine.
- pantulis 4y agoJust curious, is this process performed in alternate phases (pump water, wait for the vapor ) or is it done at the same time with different pipes in the same hole?
- bshipp 4y agoI'm also curious how they would deal with rock deformation as it reaches the point of becoming less solid and more squishy. There would need to be a mechanism to maintain hole integrity post-drilling. To your question, I'm wondering if they simply pump down water and extract resulting steam once it reaches the point of vaporization? The steam condensers and everything else are already built on-site for coal generation. One difficulty would be handling any accumulated minerals that got into the steam loop from interaction with the rock in the hole. Unlike traditional closed-loop steam generator, an open system would pick up contaminants and eventually cause scaling.
- MrsPeaches 4y agoAs another spin-off of this, I’ve always wondered how much tidal energy we can extract before we start messing up the moon’s orbit.
- treeman79 4y agoWe lose energy from gravitational waves being emitted from the earth spinning around the sun. Causing earth to move toward the sun. The amount lost is sufficient to power a small toaster oven.
- smilespray 4y agoWhere can you buy one of these toaster ovens?
- Scoundreller 4y agoDoes it have a USB port?
- revolvingocelot 4y agoCan't you read?! There's just one! ...and it's kept in the basement of the BIPM, right next to the International Prototype of the Pop-Tart®.