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Converting heat (from hardware) to electricity?

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LoneWolf121188

Member
Joined
Dec 31, 2004
Location
Osan AB, South Korea
Maybe I thought of this cause I live just outside of Boulder, CO, aka Hippietown USA, or as my friend calls it, "twelve square miles surrounded by reality", but isn't it a waste to be venting all that hot air generated by components? I mean, electricity from coal comes from heating water with hot air...what do you think a water cooling system is? Why can't we harness the heat generated by our CPUs, GPUs, NBs, MOSFETs, etc, and convert it into electricity that can be fed either back into the system, or into other components (Printer, monitor, battery charger, etc)? Heck, we could use that energy to run a cooling system for our computers!

One problem is, of cource, the high boiling point of water...maybe we don't need to use water...

Its just an idea, anyone want to expand on it?
 
It would be fairly easy(I think) to get it working if you had a closed loop with reduced air pressure, but the magnetic field would not be too healthy for your pc. Also, it would probably be fairly expensive.
 
Flip-Mode said:
Wolf, you have been having some pretty crazy ideas the past few days?
What you smoking there?

I always have crazy ideas, though you're the first person to mention it. You should see some of the other threads I've started.

Gnufsh: What if the large difference was not between the CPU and ambient, but between an area near the CPU that was very hot because of the CPU and an area of lower temp (ambient)? That could also help cool the CPU to some extent.
 
LOL, I swear I thought about the exact same thing today while reviewing for my chemistry final. I was looking at a diagram of how a nuclear power plant works when I realized that maybe the heat energy from a computer could somehow be converted to electrical energy, just like in a nuclear power plant. About a minute later I realized that there was absolutely no practical way of implementing this.
 
LoneWolf121188 said:
I always have crazy ideas, though you're the first person to mention it. You should see some of the other threads I've started.

Gnufsh: What if the large difference was not between the CPU and ambient, but between an area near the CPU that was very hot because of the CPU and an area of lower temp (ambient)? That could also help cool the CPU to some extent.
It takes energy to lower the temperature below ambient--more than you'd get out of it by lowering the temp.
 
You'd need to use a heat pump, basicly a device to concentrate energy from your cooling loop to a smaller generator loop.
 
Bensa said:
You'd need to use a heat pump, basicly a device to concentrate energy from your cooling loop to a smaller generator loop.

And I'm guessing you'd be using more energy than you would create?

Gnufsh: I think you misunderstood me. When I said "between an area near the CPU that was very hot because of the CPU and an area of lower temp (ambient)", I meant an area that was very hot because of the CPU, like a heatsink, and an area of lower temp, which would be ambient. Not an area that was below ambient.

Aw, heck, lets just stick waterwheels in our water loops and connect them to electromagnets and call it done :D .
 
LoneWolf121188 said:
And I'm guessing you'd be using more energy than you would create?

Gnufsh: I think you misunderstood me. When I said "between an area near the CPU that was very hot because of the CPU and an area of lower temp (ambient)", I meant an area that was very hot because of the CPU, like a heat sink, and an area of lower temp, which would be ambient. Not an area that was below ambient.

Ah. My original point was that you don't want your cpu much hotter than ambient. You could try sticking a Peltier between your cpu and HSF. If you don't hook it up to a power supply, the temperature difference should let you generate some electricity--but your cpu might get too hot. I do remember finding a website where a guy used the heat from his K6 to make a still. I'll see if I can find the link.

Aw, heck, lets just stick waterwheels in our water loops and connect them to electromagnets and call it done :D .
But the kinetic energy in the water comes from the pump--not the heat from the cpu. You will make the system perform worse by reducing the flow rate, and you won't even be doing what you want. It would be more efficient to simply buy a pump that uses less electricity.

The problem here is one of thermodynamics. As we use the energy (in the form of electricity) it gets turned into something harder for us to use (a small temperature difference). This is the basic idea behind entropy (if I remember correctly). Try this for a link about entropy:
http://www.entropysite.com/students_approach.html

edit: the x86 still:
http://www.exaflop.org/docs/x86still/
 
Try a peltier, and a bong setup...you might be able to get enough energy off of the pelt to power the bong, but I kinda doubt it.
 
eh, there was one guy who used the W/C to heat his garage, merely by extending his loop and using copper tubing, and another (few others?) whom heated his pool, but because the efficiency overall was unclear, its not certian weather enrygy usage was actually deferred/displaced or not.
 
The reason a nuclear plant works is because it is changing liquid water into steam. The steam is expanding and therefore creates preasure that turns turbines that then turn generators that make elec. No computer is hot enough to make steam from water. You would need something with a much lower boiling point to create the energy needed.

Then you need the mechanical items like the turbine and generator. I think that there has to be another idea to do this.
 
Gnufsh said:
But the kinetic energy in the water comes from the pump--not the heat from the cpu. You will make the system perform worse by reducing the flow rate, and you won't even be doing what you want. It would be more efficient to simply buy a pump that uses less electricity.

I know ;) . Hence the smily.

don256us: Know of anything that does have a low boiling point?

On second thought, isn't water's BP relatively high comapred to other liquids b/c of the hydrogen bonding? I think most other liquids have a fairly low BP...Time to pull out my chem book again...
 
LoneWolf121188 said:
I know ;) . Hence the smily.

don256us: Know of anything that does have a low boiling point?

On second thought, isn't water's BP relatively high comapred to other liquids b/c of the hydrogen bonding? I think most other liquids have a fairly low BP...Time to pull out my chem book again...
You might want to look at the fluids used in heat pipes--they may have better boiling points.

I think the easiest way to use computers excess heat is to just use them as a space heater.
 
Gnufsh said:
You might want to look at the fluids used in heat pipes--they may have better boiling points.

I think the easiest way to use computers excess heat is to just use them as a space heater.

Using air cooling, I use airconditioning ducts to aim them at my feet.
 
Not really on topic but my father's house uses a geothermal heat pump to heat and cool the air in the house. It takes well-water at a constant 45 degrees or so and either removes excess heat from the house in the summer (air conditioning) or takes heat from the water (heat) in the winter. It's been working really well for the last 20 years.
 
When you have water @ 100 degrees Celsius, it takes nearly 5 times more energy to make it boil, then it did to heat it to 100, from 0. Go with ethyl alcohol, It is the easiest, and least toxic fluid that you could use and it has a lower heat of vaporization then water.

You won't get enough pressure to spin a turbine, but it will remove the heat faster, with a lower overall temperature for the alcohol. Since alcohol boild @ ~80 degress, instead of 100, and its heat of vap is lower, it will evap faster, keeping it and the proc cooler.

Heatpipes have been known to use, water, methyl alcohol, and acetone...thats all I can think of off the top of my head.

Water's heat of vap is 2.26 kilo-joules per gram, alcohol is 0.88 kilo-joules per gram.
 
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