CHP for you and me? Those of us who have studied combined heat and power, know that it was at the heart of many large corporate buildings in UK, Europe, and the USA. Perhaps, Old ideas will be new again.
- Cool looking old switch I found in the bowels of a Seatle Building.
One of the keys to practical combined heat and power plants is to have a use for waste heat whether it be summer,winter, or fall. Converting low temperature waste heat into other forms of energy is likely key.. conversion of same to lights and cooling for a building could be ideal uses.
Here’s an article worth the read, perhaps we envision Green houses, where the right spectrum of light is generated off a manifold that delivers waste heat to the LEDs. The following article might discuss a very promising breakthrough.
Let’s pray that Government doesn’t fund the effort to death, and siphon off the life’s blood as it has wind and solar..
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2012-03/09/230-percent-efficient-leds
All the best,
GB
I am not an expert here but doesn’t that still violate entropy limits or something? It says that it puts out more light equivalent than electrical energy input and makes up the difference by drawing heat energy from the outside, cooling the device.
Bill, not exactly the way I read it, they are claiming an energy conversion, and expected >significiant< losses. The sources of energy to drive the LED junction are claimed to be both electrical AND heat. If true, you'd think someone would quickly grab the thermos of liquid nitrogen, watch the temp fall, and measure the light emissions, and the amount of change, perhaps they did that? Maybe we'll see more on this.. but skeptical is the opposite of gullible me thinks. Of course, Gang Greenies would vote to dump a few billion in tax payer funded subsidies into the production process next week.
We’ll all be feeding the worms before this technology becomes economically viable no matter who does the work. But be sure that some Green Weenie will find a way to “invest” our tax dollars……..