2 ms·
So almost all energy consumed by a PC is dissipated as heat? Yes. The other forms of energy leaving your PC range from tiny to infintesimal: light from the ke
by caf 11y ago
So almost all energy consumed by a PC is dissipated as heat?
Yes. The other forms of energy leaving your PC range from tiny to infintesimal: light from the keyboard/case LEDs, kinetic energy in the exhaust air molecules, radiated RF (both intentional like WiFi and unintentional), radiated sound (both intentional from inbuilt speakers or connected headphones and unintentional from vibrating components), earth leakage, and resistance losses in external wired network connections.
Most of these forms are then reabsorbed and converted to heat by other objects in the immediate surroundings as well.
Increases in the energy stored within the PC are entirely dominated by temperature increases (which will equalise with the surroundings over time). There would also be a truly infintesimal amount of energy stored in changed potential energy in magnetic domains on your hard disk or stored charges in your SSD.
- gusmd 11y agoYes, I get it. Being a Mechanical Engineer and used to balancing energy in heat engines, I just (incorrectly) assumed that SOME kind of work was being done by the computer to perform its main function, which is obviously not the case (at least not to non-negligible amounts). Thanks for clarifying.
- caf 11y agoAhh, as an ME you would appreciate then that the useful work a computer does is not thermodynamic work but a decrease in the disorder of some system it is a part of, and this necessarily requires increasing the entropy of its environment - typically by transferring heat to it!