David Roberson <dlrober...@aol.com> wrote: I suspect that the lower power products that are mentioned, such as a > laptop computer will still need connection to a power generation source > that is external. The electrical power they need requires the release of > far too much low quality heat for its local generation. >
Yes, for a while. Maybe 20 to 30 years? During that time there will be small generators for houses, and larger ones for apartments, schools, shopping malls and so on. Since the wiring is already in place this will be easy and it will cost little. In the long term, I predict that thermoelectric devices will improve to ~50% or better efficiency. A laptop nowadays draws 50 to 100 W. I assume future ones will draw ~25 W. Imagine a small but intense 50 W heat source powering a thermoelectric chip, with a large radiator behind that to spread out the heat. That would be doable I think. > My laptop burns a hole in my lap as it is and I can not imagine > increasing it's heat release by several times to rely upon internal > generation. > That is partly because all of the heat comes out of one place in your laptop, where the battery is. I have noticed that. They need a better radiator. As I said, assuming the demand fall by about half and 50% effective thermoelectric chips are developed, future laptops will be no hotter than today's machines. Bright electric lights will be roughly as hot as old-fashioned incandescent ones. Refrigerators will mainly use heat directly, like today's gas fired ones. There may be some large household appliances that run too hot with cold fusion thermoelectric chips. Perhaps washing machines? They may need to be vented. Clothes dryers will use cold fusion heat directly, so they will be no hotter than they are now. > It seems logical for each home to contain its own generation system which > should be LENR based. This type of system would also allow for the usage > of existing appliances. > Appliances last 10 to 15 years, rarely 20. Once the "fleet" of refrigerators and air conditioners is replaced with cold fusion thermal ones, and clothes dryer are replaced, household demand for electricity drops a great deal. See Table 15.1 in my book. The changeover will accelerate in the last stages, taking less than the 15 years appliances usually last. I explained the reasons here: http://lenr-canr.org/acrobat/RothwellJthefuturem.pdf This pattern was seen with other obsolete technology, such as mainframe and minicomputers. > In the far future, all bets are off as to how power is obtained at an > individuals home. I am more concerned about how things play out during my > lifetime and not for generations 100 years into the future. > This will take no longer than 50 years, and probably less, starting the day cold fusion goes on sale. I base that on the time it took automobiles to clobber the horse-and-buggy and the short distance passenger rail business, and the time it took VoIP and cell phones to make landlines obsolete. In New York after the damage from the recent hurricane, the phone company is not even going to bother replacing the landlines in some rural areas. They are pushing all customers to cell phone technology. - Jed
