Wacky ideas Here please

I'll start this thread with weird ideas:

- two requirements

- The tech must exist

- there must not be a more obvious way to do it (that isn't already being used)

Mine first I guess.

A Water Heater That uses the heat off an A/C unit to heat the water. Then the gas/electric heater inside could be smaller, used for only reserve, or even eliminated!

- Plus since A/C is technically a heat *pump* then the heat it puts into the water would be from the surroundings and would cool the area around it. (also plus some inefficiencies, like the heat the motor produces and stuff)

(actually im pretty sure this exists but like I never see it even available to buy so I'm classifying it as not really existing. )

Another Idea: Bacterial lamps. Crack a capsule of sugar into a jar filled with bioluminescent bacteria and have some light. Probably more R&D into types of bacteria can make it run off of waste food.

Quote from craftycat

a vacuum cleaner that sucks up snow and ice and purifies it into drinkable water

so.. hmmm. Sounds like it could be done tbh. Though I'd imagine it to be more useful in the northern climbs.

Quote from seelenfang

heat from the A/C ist to low to cook water.

no, yea you can boil water on the hot side of an A/C. if you've ever disconnected the hot side fan and just let it heat up, you can reasonably boil water.

I learned that the hard way, considering I had a thanos chin on my arm for a while. ( accidentally got burned by the fins and I had neat rows of burn scars)

Quote from seelenfang

that it would be ineffective

The A/C system is fundamentally a heat pump; it moves heat from one point to the next. Because it is not using the energy input into it to generate heat, the efficiency on the heating element (the hot side) could exceed 100% and good A/C's will have a heating efficiency of over 200%

( example: put in 1kWh of electricity, hot side outputs 2kWh of heat) because it moves heat energy rather than generates it.

things like resistive heaters are capped at 100% efficiency, often between 95-99% efficiency, because they are using the electricity to directly generate the heat. Gas burners are the same, but the input energy comes from piping in gas. if you needed 2kWh of heat, then you would have to feed it 2kWh of energy.

Quote from seelenfang

Maybe it would work for bigger kitchens

I'd think so! there is a lot more heat energy present in bigger kitchens, could probably help keep the cooks cooled off during cooking. less sweating too.