I assume that the best case scenario is for a house that needs heat and electricity but only has gas service. If electricity is already available, then it would be non productive to convert the electrical energy into heat first and then change its form into a combination of heat and newly generated electricity. A heat pump would do a better job as far as I can ascertain from what was published.
Of course, the heat would only be needed at certain times, so the conversion into electricity might not be that useful except in winter. The concept of turning heat into electrical power by acoustic means is interesting, but it must be competitive with the other sources. If the efficiency were better than 40%, then this would be fabulous, but at the level stated, it is merely a great toy. The underlying technology is quite interesting. It never ceases to amaze me how many different techniques can be discovered to use elevated heat sources to convert into other forms of energy. I am still seeking that device that can take raw heat energy at room temperature and extract some of it leaving the remainder at a cooler temperature. Nature seems to do that with IR radiation so perhaps we can find a method that also works in an efficient manner. To #$!* with thermodynamic laws! It is a new year so I hope that many new and exciting discoveries await us. Happy New year to all of the vortex world! Dave -----Original Message----- From: mixent <[email protected]> To: vortex-l <[email protected]> Sent: Wed, Jan 1, 2014 7:46 pm Subject: Re: [Vo]:acoustic conversion of heat into electricity In reply to David Roberson's message of Wed, 1 Jan 2014 14:47:04 -0500 (EST): Hi, [snip] >The main item of interest is how efficient is the conversion of heat energy into sound and ultimately electricity. The high efficiency that they mention likely is in response to them using the waste heat in its degraded form. Based on the figures given (1-4 kW electric 15-30 kW thermal) I would say that the conversion efficiency is not very high, e.g. 4/34 = 11.8%. However it does provide a combined heat/power option for the home, something which is not exactly widely available. It could also be a good match for novel heat sources (LENR). Regards, Robin van Spaandonk http://rvanspaa.freehostia.com/project.html
