I just got thinking...i opened my a/c this weekend to check it out, and i got thinking. There is a lot of heat energy coming out of the top of it at a high speed. Is it possible to turn that energy into electricity? BEcause if it is possible, every house in the USA could install one!

COmments?

I don't think that what you are saying makes much sense. Does a/c mean air conditioning? If it does, electricity is used to, in want of a better word, "pump" heat from the inside of your house to the outside. Heat is usually the most degenerate form of energy in that it is usually considered as waste, not easily convertable to othee forms of energy. Is this what you are talking about?

yeah i am talking about air conditioning.

Is it possible to use the heat energy released from the coils?

There are thermogenerators. But from my understanding most require a rather large temperature difference AND generate very little heat. If someone could come up with a good thermogenerator, they'd make a killing.

-AntonK

Yeah, you could use the heat generated by the air-con to heat your house, but that seems a bit counter-intuitive don't you think? This would not be producing energy for nothing as it is just waste energy produced by the a/c, which is powered by electricity. You would just be recouperating this lost energy.

Originally posted by Wilcox8686
yeah i am talking about air conditioning.

Is it possible to use the heat energy released from the coils?

Check out this site: http://www.eere.energy.gov/der/pdfs/ies_tat_conf_02/mescher.pdf

http://www.semcoinc.com

or that one... check under "dessicant wheels".

Originally posted by ryans
You would just be recouperating this lost energy.

Yeah, you would not profit from this, however the gained power would reduce operating costs. I guess you would just be making it more efficient.

Originally posted by ryans
Yeah, you could use the heat generated by the air-con to heat your house, but that seems a bit counter-intuitive don't you think? This would not be producing energy for nothing as it is just waste energy produced by the a/c, which is powered by electricity. You would just be recouperating this lost energy.

THe problem is that all you can do is increase the efficiency of the heat exchange processes. This isn't generally economically feasible except on a very large scale. It might be in the home setting if manufacturing costs can be limited. I'm not sure that they can overcome the typical losses due to poor insulation, etc.

I don't know whats the matter with me... but what are those things on that website?

Originally posted by Wilcox8686
I don't know whats the matter with me... but what are those things on that website?

They are devices that do what you asking about. They recover the energy coming back through the system. It's slightly different that what you're talking about, but does the same thing... recovering heat energy. In this case, it is a wheel that captures heat energy in the exhaust channel of an industrial sized HVAC system. It does so using a "dessicant wheel". It's not exactly what you're talking about, but it's very similar and might lead you to clues as to why it's not done. My is that can't be done efficiently with current materials.

edited the bold part.. my bad.. pardon