Turning Heat Into Sound Into Electricity 257
WrongSizeGlass writes "Science Daily is reporting on work by physicists at the University of Utah who have developed small devices that turn heat into sound and then into electricity. 'We are converting waste heat to electricity in an efficient, simple way by using sound [...] It is a new source of renewable energy from waste heat.' They report that technology holds promise for changing waste heat into electricity, harnessing solar energy and cooling computers and radars."
Efficiency as opposed to thermoelectric? (Score:5, Interesting)
Can it really be this good? (Score:4, Interesting)
I wonder (Score:2, Interesting)
Diaphragms? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:use it to power my computer (Score:3, Interesting)
I've always wanted to try using the thermal dissipation of the processor to power its own cooling system. That is, create a pressurized case, and have an intake compressor that brings in cool air, which is heated by the processor(s), which is then sent out through a power-tapping device (turbine or piston) to power the compressor and keep things going.
Basically a Brayton-cycle cooling system. You could actually move a lot of air with 300W power dissipation! (way more than you can with a little 15 W cooling fan).
(Too bad the drawbacks are that it requires some pretty slick machinery and a pressure chamber :p )
Re:Can it really be this good? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Linux Toaster? (Score:2, Interesting)
- Petaris
"The World is Open. Are You?"
Why not use a solid-state Pelier instead? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Efficiency as opposed to thermoelectric? (Score:3, Interesting)
It's not clear to me that Carnot's Theorem applies to this technique.
Anybody want to chime in with some insightful comment on this?
Re:Linux Toaster? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Efficiency as opposed to thermoelectric? (Score:3, Interesting)
Refer to Wittgenstein; meaning is use, and renewable is used to mean the definition that has been explained to you. I can imagine the scene at Bletchley park, now:
"But these encrypted messages are just a bunch of characters! They don't mean anything!"
Meaning is determined not by what one person thinks - not even by what the dictionary says - it is determined by how it is used in a particular context.
Re:Efficiency as opposed to thermoelectric? (Score:3, Interesting)
Right! So, consider my post and this thread to be an attempt to encourage people to use that word (and the others that are thus required) in a more meaningful way. If a single word is used to represent lots of substantially different things (in this case, "renewable" interchangeably meaning the same thing when referring to a marginally better way to burn coal and also using solar energy). I'm not complaining about the evolution of language. I'm complaining about the DE-evolution of language. The loss of precision. The inability to know, from the use word used, what is actually meant... or worse, to be MISLED by the choice of a particular word. That's fine for advertising, but not for science.