Far from a new idea indeed, what is new is that it is moving closer to being a viable technology. A thermo acoustic refer has been developed and tested in HOT undeveloped parts of the world and found to work. The device is placed in the sun during the day and it produces ice, then it is moved indoors at night and keeps foods cold until the next day. What one must see is that there are NO moving parts. The device can be built from material that is not super expensive.
Something (I'm not aware of anyone doing it yet) is to use this device to reclaim potable water from the air. Granted the load is greater than doing the ice, but it can be done, and is an interesting idea as all one does is get to the dew point and dump the resulting latent heat which with proper design can be used by the prime mover. Not new indeed, but better than some of the other hair brained schemes being proposed by many... -----Original Message----- From: Michael Foster [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, June 15, 2007 12:41 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Vo]:A sound way to turn heat into electricity Harry Veeder wrote: > A sound way to turn heat into electricity > > http://forum.physorg.com/index.php?showtopic=15401 > > > University of Utah physicist Orest Symko holds a match to a small heat > engine that produces a high-pitched tone by converting heat into sound. > Symko's research team is combining such heat engines with existing > technology that turns sound into electricity, resulting in devices that can > harness solar energy in a new way, cool computers and other electronics. > Credit: University of Utah > > University of Utah physicists developed small devices that turn heat into > sound and then into electricity. The technology holds promise for changing > waste heat into electricity, harnessing solar energy and cooling computers > and radars. > .................................... > > "Its an extremely small thermoacoustic device one of the smallest built > and it opens the way for producing them in an array," Symko says. > > Source: University of Utah > > http://www.physorg.com/news100141616.html Other than the not exactly original idea to make these devices smaller, I don't see what's new here. M. ____________________________________________________________________________ ________ Choose the right car based on your needs. Check out Yahoo! Autos new Car Finder tool. http://autos.yahoo.com/carfinder/
