Waste heat close to becoming useful in cooling / lighting applications

Not that waste heat in general hasn't been repurposed for non-wasteful activities before, but researchers at Doshisha University are now edging ever closer to making useful the previously annoying thermoacoustic phenomenon. For those not really tied into the science realm, said phenomenon is a nonlinear one in which "heated air autonomously transforms into sound when passing through small mesh holes in a wire sheet." Gurus are now developing a cooling technology that would have heat converted to sound, where it would then be transferred through a tube and reconverted into heat; furthermore, other whiz-kids are looking to generate actual electricity from the racket. In related news, the thermoelectric conversion is being used to transform waste heat from candles into energy for LEDs, which would emit more light than the candle powering it. Pop on past the break for a demonstration of the former.

[CleverEndeavor @ Dec 26th 2008 10:15PM]

i can imagine this...
2058
fires break out.. all humanity destroyed.

[Kris120890 @ Dec 26th 2008 10:26PM]

But with a enough heat to power a fancy LED display with a message saying when the humans race died and what year.

[Arkenklo @ Dec 29th 2008 1:42AM]

Atleast you will hear when the fire is coming close.

[N30 G30 @ Dec 26th 2008 10:23PM]

In the future, energy use will be twice as efficient and twice as noisy.

[Ryan Trevisol @ Dec 26th 2008 10:25PM]

"waste heat from candles into energy for LEDs, which would emit more light than the candle powering it"

That's cool, I got an idea for a car that's powered by the waste heat generated by several scooters running full blast.

[Arkenklo @ Dec 27th 2008 6:03PM]

Or how about a car that's powered it's own waste heat?
Wait...

[Arkenklo @ Dec 27th 2008 6:11PM]

Or how about a car that's powered it's own waste heat?
Wait...

[Arkenklo @ Dec 27th 2008 6:12PM]

Woops!

[deyanimay @ Dec 26th 2008 10:33PM]

Finally my dream will come true. Fart powered cars, because farts produce both sound and heat so no wasted energy. Then you could also collect and burn the methane. =)

[RM @ Dec 26th 2008 10:51PM]

You dream about farts?

[Stereotype @ Dec 27th 2008 10:44AM]

Ewwwwwwww! :P

[deyanimay @ Dec 27th 2008 11:08AM]

Lol, you would need to eat a lot of beans.

[HOOPER @ Dec 28th 2008 5:22PM]

Is your avatar a cooler version of the firefox logo on purpose?

[deyanimay @ Dec 28th 2008 7:11PM]

No i didn't make this my avatar just for this one comment, but even if i did how exactly would it be relevant?

[andres @ Dec 26th 2008 11:07PM]

if its twice as noisy its less efficient

[andres @ Dec 26th 2008 11:08PM]

shit, was supposed to be attached to N30 G30

[lanosian @ Dec 26th 2008 11:11PM]

The future looks too noisy for me.

[mocax @ Dec 26th 2008 11:11PM]

sounds eerie....

AAWWWOOOOOOOOooooooooo......gah....

[Game_playa @ Dec 26th 2008 11:26PM]

My ears!

[AL @ Dec 26th 2008 11:54PM]

Can you imagine if they could harness energy from fanboy rants?

[andres @ Dec 27th 2008 12:22AM]

just enough to power my flux capacitor

[Arkenklo @ Dec 27th 2008 6:13PM]

Headline: Experiment to decide wether or not waste energy from online rants can be collected for a useful purpose

Participators: Me, all users of Engadget.com, iEye

Material: Verbal knowledge, computer terminal connected to internet

Result: Unknown / not yet determined.

Execution: Apple sucks!

[mr.n @ Dec 27th 2008 1:21AM]

The only question I have is this:
Is converting heat, to sound, and then to electricity, more efficient then other methods that use fire to create electricity? (such as power plants that use fire, to boil water, that then spins generators)

My answer: I doubt it.

[Joshua Walters @ Dec 27th 2008 1:47AM]

Thats not the point. Its not a primary method of producing electricity, it would be secondary, using heat already coming from a source that would be producing heat either way.

The proofs of concept are just using fire, because that is a readily available heat source.

[RioRyan @ Dec 27th 2008 1:57AM]

For a couple years now we've had a little fan that runs off electricity generated by the heat of the wood stove you sit it on. It works pretty good, there's even a heatsink behind the fan so it picks up the heat of the wood stove and throws it forward instead of just up.

[aaron @ Dec 31st 2008 4:02PM]

I'm guessing that your fan is actually powered by a sterling engine, something entirely different than this....