Comment Re:Why is heat reclamation not worth it? (Score 1) 155
Okay, according to theory it is possible to use that heat. But it would be economically unsound.
Most efficent heat transfer can be achieved by convection using materials (fluids) with high absorption of heat (as water) and movement of said fluid (now hot) to the power generator. The size of the required devices would be the size of your desktop at least. At they would be expensive too.
And, as all thermal and mechanical processes, they are not 100% efficient (2nd law of thermodynamics) nor in the CPU side neither in the turbine side. So your generator would also dissipate heat (and it is noisy too).
As for the methods using temperature differentials, I am not expert but IIRC they are not so efficient or at least are slow (they need large masses of matter to be practical because the ratio of electricity generation / time is low). So, they could not transfer heat fast enough for your CPU to cool off.
Most efficent heat transfer can be achieved by convection using materials (fluids) with high absorption of heat (as water) and movement of said fluid (now hot) to the power generator. The size of the required devices would be the size of your desktop at least. At they would be expensive too.
And, as all thermal and mechanical processes, they are not 100% efficient (2nd law of thermodynamics) nor in the CPU side neither in the turbine side. So your generator would also dissipate heat (and it is noisy too).
As for the methods using temperature differentials, I am not expert but IIRC they are not so efficient or at least are slow (they need large masses of matter to be practical because the ratio of electricity generation / time is low). So, they could not transfer heat fast enough for your CPU to cool off.
