22
Would it be possible (at some point) cool aur by pulling heatenergy from it?
(discuss.tchncs.de)
A nice place to discuss rumors, happenings, innovations, and challenges in the technology sphere. We also welcome discussions on the intersections of technology and society. If it’s technological news or discussion of technology, it probably belongs here.
Remember the overriding ethos on Beehaw: Be(e) Nice. Each user you encounter here is a person, and should be treated with kindness (even if they’re wrong, or use a Linux distro you don’t like). Personal attacks will not be tolerated.
Subcommunities on Beehaw:
This community's icon was made by Aaron Schneider, under the CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
Entropy says no.
Energy likes to be heat and the only way to get heat energy out of something is by having a temperature differential. ACs spit out air that's hotter than the environment so you could theoretically turn some of that back into useful energy, but the cost of doing that outweighs the benefits.
What's the cost if we pipe the hot air through a steam engine?
Heat pumps (like AC units, fridges, etc) become less efficient the greater temperature difference they have to pump the heat. So pumping heat from a 25°C room to a >100°C steam engine would become terribly inefficient. It would need more energy, which creates more environmental damage and climate crisis to source, and that energy heats the cities even more.
The only sane way to cool cities is to get rid of as much concrete and asphalt as possible (especially the vast amounts of ground that is covered for cars), and keep only narrower sealed paths for small individial transport like bikes. Plaster everything with trees and grass and other greens. They cool down the city dramatically and are able to take up the water that comes down at extreme weather events.
Escaping the urban hellscape cannot be achieved by building more stuff and throwing more energy at it. Just visit a park in your city and observe how the temperature changes, it is that simple. Mobility cannot seal all surface area, it has the be minimal, i.e. narrow paths and trains with rails that can also run on open ground / green areas. This implies of course not building secluded areas for living, shopping, working etc.. It has to be a mix, where commutes are short (i.e. like european cities, not american ones).