- #1
Fooality
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- TL;DR Summary
- Can an air conditioner cool the air in all directions provided it emits energy in some other form?
I know heat is a form of energy, and that’s conserved, so usually an air conditioner will emit heat on one side, cooling on the other, probably increasing the overall heat in total.
What’s not clear to me is if it always must do this, specifically if the air conditioner produces another form of energy: For instance I’m picturing an electrical device that cools on it’s whole exterior, and uses heat inside to generate output electricity or something through some kind of heat engine on the inside. The Wikipedia page for heat engine says:
“During this process some of the thermal energy is converted into work by exploiting the properties of the working substance.”
What’s unclear to me is if the amount of thermal energy converted to electricity can be large enough that that the net cooling of the device can be greater than the net heating, or if this violates some fundamental laws. (I’m not a physics guy)
Thanks for any guidance or resources.
What’s not clear to me is if it always must do this, specifically if the air conditioner produces another form of energy: For instance I’m picturing an electrical device that cools on it’s whole exterior, and uses heat inside to generate output electricity or something through some kind of heat engine on the inside. The Wikipedia page for heat engine says:
“During this process some of the thermal energy is converted into work by exploiting the properties of the working substance.”
What’s unclear to me is if the amount of thermal energy converted to electricity can be large enough that that the net cooling of the device can be greater than the net heating, or if this violates some fundamental laws. (I’m not a physics guy)
Thanks for any guidance or resources.