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There was a thread from another article on the washington post: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36091615 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36091615 It
by jaclaz 3y ago
There was a thread from another article on the washington post:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36091615 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36091615
It is essentially the usual "breakthrough" that won't likey have any practical use for many years, the experimental device is tiny and produces very little power.
It seems you need one billion of these devices to get 1 kW.
>The device, the size of a fingernail and thinner than a single hair, is dotted with tiny holes known as nanopores. The holes have a diameter smaller than 100 nanometers, or less than a thousandth of the width of a strand of human hair.
>While one prototype only produces a small amount of energy — almost enough to power a dot of light on a big screen — because of its size, Yao said Air-gens can be stacked on top of each other, potentially with spaces of air in between. Storing the electricity is a separate issue, he added.
>Yao estimated that roughly 1 billion Air-gens, stacked to be roughly the size of a refrigerator, could produce a kilowatt and partly power a home in ideal conditions. The team hopes to lower both the number of devices needed and the space they take up by making the tool more efficient. Doing that could be a challenge.
- giarc 3y agoSome googling and napkin math. 1 fridge = 1 kW A fridge is 25 cubic feet, so 40 watts per cubic foot. A Dell E2422H monitor uses 13 watts while powered on. So a box 0.325 cubic feet could power a monitor, or a cube of 8.25" edge length. Assuming it was 100% efficient and endless supply of humid air etc.
- importantbrian 3y ago> and endless supply of humid air etc. Floridians are getting really excited right now.
- mojomark 3y agoI had a 5kW gas powered generator that more than lowered out 3 bedroom 1.5 bath house for when our power would go out - sometimes for several days (1 refrigerator, HVAC unit, microwave, electric washer/dryer, two laptops, 2 large screen TV's, hot water heater - all drawing power intermittently of course, but we never exceeded). It was about the size of a small riding lawn mower. If I could have 5 refrigerator-sized boxes in my backyard powering my house, I would be in.
- jaclaz 3y ago>If I could have 5 refrigerator-sized boxes in my backyard powering my house, I would be in. Yep, but that would be 5 billion "cells". How much would a "nail sized" cell cost? If 0.001 $ (1/1000 of a dollar), that would be a nice, round 5 million dollar.
- giarc 3y agoSure, but the first LCD tv's were $50,000, now you can get one for $100. It won't be $5m forever.
- jaclaz 3y agoYep, but prototypes of (small, monochrome) LCD screens were created in the '60's, your $50,000 data point would have been probably mid-1980's, and the $100 lcd tv's probably happened in the late 2010's. I wouldn't be surprised (if this humidity device actually works and can be bettered) that working regrigerator sized units will be availably in 2040 and be actually affordable by the 2070's.
- notjulianjaynes 3y agoUnless I misunderstood, the fingernail sized object was just a prototype and the important thing isn't the size of the "cell" but the number of 100nm holes in the material. I wonder if the kind of lithography used for semiconductor manufactur would be a useful way to produce this material?
- schainks 3y agohuh, seems like you could realistically power a low end watch, though.