Future heating needs to replace gas boilers
Maybe a thread on friction heat
Heat storage
Some interesting ideas using water through a two spinning discs with holes in them
To do with hydraulics and air in pipes causing heat just by flow
Maybe a thread on friction heat
Heat storage
Some interesting ideas using water through a two spinning discs with holes in them
To do with hydraulics and air in pipes causing heat just by flow
All those are just energy conversion, nothing is for free.
Electric heating is the most efficient for direct heat, as all the losses are also heat.
Heat pumps (eg. reverse air conditioning) are better when practical, as moving heat gives a lot more at the destination than the power used, by drawing from some other source.
It's using roughly 2x the environmental heat as new energy input, so reasonably environmentally friendly; a lot better that any "pure" energy conversion.
The only "free" energy, is nuclear and, if it ever gets working fusion. All other energy (except geothermal and tide) comes from the sun. Geothermal (might be nuclear) and tide come from the rotation of the earth - not the moon.
i once read an article where an engineer designed a turbine that flashed water to steam, and in the article claimed his turbine was 107% efficient (which isn't possible)..... his calculations were solely based on the electrical input to the motor. i soon figured out what he had missed, a second source of input energy being the gravity or pump fed water pressure of the incoming water supply...
i once read an article where an engineer designed a turbine that flashed water to steam, and in the article claimed his turbine was 107% efficient (which isn't possible)..... his calculations were solely based on the electrical input to the motor. i soon figured out what he had missed, a second source of input energy being the gravity or pump fed water pressure of the incoming water supply...
I've always been quite bemused by water pumps in some old mines, that use the falling water to pump the water out of the mine, such as this one not too far from me.
**broken link removed**
But underground water wheels were far more common, and easier to understand.
The trick of course is for the water to fall down further than you're pumping it back up.
I found one buried near a small spring in some woods behind my parents old place - it appears to have been the original drinking water supply to the house in the late 18th century. The body was cast lead, with iron fittings that had corroded almost beyond recognition. The accumulator pipe had been removed from the top but it was otherwise reasonably intact, though with seized valves.
This site has a good diagram, from a quick google search:
Further losses occur in the distribution and use of the electricity. This mechanical hydro-power device is well established for domestic and farm water pumping
So if we all extract geothermal and/or tidal energy and it ultimately ends up radiated into space, the Earth's rotation will slow down. Day length will increase. Fewer days per year. We'll need to make adjustments to the calendar.
No free lunch
How much energy did it take to form the ice tilting the earth away from the sun
I did see a demonstration using a thermal break between a steel rod in ice like radiator hose in a car filled with cold boil liquid
Then the kettle put on the radiator laying flat now thing is what was the liquid