On Jan 26, 10:32 pm, nos...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Paul Ciszek) wrote:
> In article
<566fdcec-2673-4497-bac7-d6824bbdc...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>,
>
> dwight.thi...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<dwight.thi...@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote:
>
> >I'm guessing that what is _meant_, rather than what was putatively
> >_said_ was that of all the energy theoretically available, this device
> >can recover 60%. So if you're talking about, say, 500 K and 300 K,
> >you're talking about 60% of 40% or 24% overall efficiency. In the
> >context of the advertised claims, this sounds reasonable.
>
> Most solid state devices begin to lose efficiency and operate
> differently as they heat up; one that operated at 300K *and* at
> 500K sounds hard to believe. I suppose you could build some clever
> device of layered materials where one part of it doesn't even
> start to work until it reaches at least 400K. But I have a hard
> time believing this story without specifics.
>
> BTW, some photovoltaics that work in the IR can be used as heat
> engines of a sort; you keep the PV itself cool, while it receives
> radiation from a black body a short distance away, preferably
> across a vacuum gap. I seem to remember this being promoted as
> a sort of emergency generator with no moving parts that could be
> stored and neglected for long periods of time before suddenly
> being needed.
>
> --
> Please reply to: | "One of the hardest parts of my job is to
> pciszek at panix dot com | connect Iraq to the War on Terror."
> Autoreply is disabled | -- G. W. Bush, 9/7/2006
Yes, I'm sure most of us know these basic facts, and I'm well, not
skeptical, precisely, but definitely with-holding judgment until units
are actually being sold (the same with nano-solar.)[1] I'm merely
pointing out that what you're objecting to may just be sloppy writing.
[1]I definitely like the water guns, and I really hope this works as
advertised just because of that proud display. _That_, to my mind, is
really what America is all about, the luck, the pluck, the can-do
optimism of the Yankee Inventor. _This_ is the sort of guy who was
written about in the fabulous 40's, who invented a spacedrive in their
garage and built their own space****p out back.
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