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> wasted energy that in theory could be turned into useful work Even if turned into useful work, the end result of that work is still ultimately heat.
by stouset 10mo ago
> wasted energy that in theory could be turned into useful work
Even if turned into useful work, the end result of that work is still ultimately heat.
- cousin_it 10mo agoRight, but if it's noticeably hotter than the environment, then that temperature difference could be used to drive a heat engine and get some more useful work. So the knee-jerk response "omg, we see the heat from space? it's gotta be wasteful!" is kind of correct, in theory.
- anon84873628 10mo agoSome people are saying "waste heat" in the technical sense of "the heat my industrial process created and I need to get rid of" and others are saying "waste heat" as "heat humans are emitting into space without slapping at least one Carnot engine on it yet".
- stouset 10mo agoIf the heat being generated were economically worthwhile, the miners would be incentivized to use it to offset their costs. Since they aren't, we can somewhat reasonably assume that it would cost more to recapture than it's probably worth.