4 ms·

While what you say is totally true, huge part of the energy budget of humanity is heating stuff. If we remove heating for cooking, heating homes and water ... w

While what you say is totally true, huge part of the energy budget of humanity is heating stuff. If we remove heating for cooking, heating homes and water ... we will reduce drastically our footprint. Also my inner steampunk geek will love the sight of huge sterling engines moving around ...

vmarsy 12y ago
True, also a lot of industries requires heating things as well so if it's efficient for them to paint their warehouse it's a good thing! And if you have a nice source of heat, it could provide a nice A/C without requiring electricity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator)
im3w1l 12y ago
If you use a heatpump you can convert electricity to heat at >100% efficiency.
- venomsnake 12y ago
  No ... you can never convert electricity to heat at > 100% efficiency. What heatpumps do is transfer heat from one place to another while using electricity. And they have some nice limitations on temperature operating ranges.
  - hobs 12y ago
    Yeah, I think he is thinking you may be able to re-use some of the heat energy from the output of one machine to be the input on another. This never gets close to over 100% efficiency because of the laws of thermodynamics.
  - im3w1l 12y ago
    Yeah ok, sorry for being a little imprecise. Anyway, the main point still stands, you can heat a house more with one Joule of electricity than one Joule of heat.
  - kragen 12y ago
    in context, this is pedantry. using a heat pump, you can add four joules of heat to your house by dissipating one joule of electrical energy. that's four times as efficient as an electric space heater (bar fire) or lightbulb, which are very nearly '100 percent efficient.' in this sense, im3w1l is correct, even though the phrasing could confuse people into thinking that we are talking about perpetual motion machines.

vmarsy 12y ago

True, also a lot of industries requires heating things as well so if it's efficient for them to paint their warehouse it's a good thing! And if you have a nice source of heat, it could provide a nice A/C without requiring electricity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Einstein_refrigerator)

im3w1l 12y ago

If you use a heatpump you can convert electricity to heat at >100% efficiency.

venomsnake 12y ago
No ... you can never convert electricity to heat at > 100% efficiency. What heatpumps do is transfer heat from one place to another while using electricity. And they have some nice limitations on temperature operating ranges.
- hobs 12y ago
  Yeah, I think he is thinking you may be able to re-use some of the heat energy from the output of one machine to be the input on another. This never gets close to over 100% efficiency because of the laws of thermodynamics.
- im3w1l 12y ago
  Yeah ok, sorry for being a little imprecise. Anyway, the main point still stands, you can heat a house more with one Joule of electricity than one Joule of heat.
- kragen 12y ago
  in context, this is pedantry. using a heat pump, you can add four joules of heat to your house by dissipating one joule of electrical energy. that's four times as efficient as an electric space heater (bar fire) or lightbulb, which are very nearly '100 percent efficient.' in this sense, im3w1l is correct, even though the phrasing could confuse people into thinking that we are talking about perpetual motion machines.