• user134450@feddit.de
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    9 months ago

    also: you can calculate the carnot cycle efficiency of a solar cell as if it was a classical heat-power-machine, even though it has no visible moving parts.

    the reason why this works and yields realistic results is because the basic principles of thermodynamics stay the same no matter if you are working with steam, combustion gasses or photons and electron gas inside a semiconductor.

    • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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      9 months ago

      The energy from the sun (that they refer to as heat in the meme) is being converted to electricity (cold in the meme) before assumedly being converted to heat when it’s used

      • jdeath@lemm.ee
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        9 months ago

        why would electricity be cold tho? my battery gets hot af when i take energy out or put it in. it’s like pure energy, seems spicy

        • intensely_human@lemm.ee
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          9 months ago

          Because it’s organized energy instead of the disorganized energy that is heat.

          That which does not become heat stays cold.

        • ryannathans@aussie.zone
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          9 months ago

          Hot batteries are from wasted energy lost during charge/discharge cycles. Only a very small amount of energy is lost this way. When a battery is full, and sitting idle, it’s cold. Electrical wires are generally cold, they only get hot when huge amounts of energy pass through them and even then the heat is from an incredibly small amount of waste.

          This can als me condensed down into - If energy exists in a usable manner inside something, it’s generally not as heat.

  • janAkali@lemmy.one
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    9 months ago

    Yes. It’s also a Rube Goldberg machine, where photons travel millions of kilometers from sun to bump into some electrons, electrons then bump into some metal and fast metal pushes air in your room to make it move a little bit faster.

  • mvirts@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    When we burn fossil fuels we cast a spell to resurrect old heat from the grave and command it to move new heat somewhere else for a while.