3 ms·
Where does the energy "used on computing" go? The power consumption of a CPU is dissipated as heat.
by jffry 3y ago
Where does the energy "used on computing" go? The power consumption of a CPU is dissipated as heat.
- quesera 3y agoSo, I think I understand this view from the thermodynamics sense. First law and all. But by this construction, are all systems which take energy as input (and do not convert it to another form for storage) de facto 100% efficient? When we talk about a (very old) furnace being 75% efficient at turning the chemical energy of a fossil fuel into heat energy, is the 25% loss purely combustion byproducts with some inherent chemical energy plus some non-combusted fuel?
- jffry 3y agoIn this case for heating, efficiency is how much of the energy input gets converted into heat in the space you're heating. So for a resistive electric heater, you're dissipating all of the energy as heat (minor quibbles about electromagnetic radiation or status LEDs aside). The same is true for your computer. Burning hydrocarbons have two main sources of energy loss: incomplete combustion, and energy carried away by exhaust gases. Obviously furnace design influences both of these - the US federal minimum is 78%, but high-end furnaces with all the tricks can get over 90% per https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/furnaces-and-boilers https://www.energy.gov/energysaver/furnaces-and-boilers Heat pumps are the third major category, and they are more than 100% efficient because they are using their energy to steal a larger amount of thermal energy from the outdoors air and move it to inside your home (and much of the electric energy they consume is eventually discharged as heat inside your home as well).
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]