Heat -- Engadget

heat posts

Water-cooled Aquasar supercomputer does math, heats dorm rooms

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 25th 2009 at 5:27AM

Not that we haven't seen this trick pulled before, but there's still something magical about the forthcoming Aquasar. Said supercomputer, which will feature two IBM BladeCenter servers in each rack, should be completed by 2010 and reach a top speed of ten teraflops. Such a number pales in comparison to the likes of IBM's Roadrunner, but it's the energy factor here that makes it a star. If all goes well, this machine will suck down just 10KW of energy, while the average power consumption of a supercomputer in the top 500 list is 257KW. The secret lies in the new approach to chip-level water cooling, which will utilize a "fine network of capillaries" to bring the water dangerously close to the processors without actually frying any silicon. While it's crunching numbers, waste heat will also be channeled throughout the heating system at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, giving students and dorm room crashers a good feel for the usefulness of recycled warmth.

Heat2power sucks on exhaust gases for extra mileage

by Paul Miller, posted May 4th 2009 at 9:43PM

The concept of turning waste heat into energy is hardly new, but it looks like it's getting a little closer to your engine these days. Heat2power is similar to other systems that are designed to take the excess heat that normally goes out the exhaust pipe and turn it into go power, but the claim is that this one bests them on efficiency -- to the tune of reducing fuel consumption 20 percent in the city and 35 percent on the highway. The best news is that the device, which hooks right into the crankshaft, is compatible with "any" internal combustion engine. Of course, that's big talk for a company that doesn't have an exact product yet. It also seems like retrofitting would be a bit rough. The estimated additional cost to a vehicle is in the range or 300 to 400 euros (about $500 US).

[Via Autoblog Green]

Belkin justifies $30 for a pillow, calls it CushDesk

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 27th 2009 at 3:12PM

If you're still up for spending unnecessarily these days, Belkin has the perfect excuse to blow 30 bones on a couch pillow replacement. The oddly, almost comically named CushDesk, is nothing more than a sophisticated lap cushion with a somewhat sturdy top that acts as a portable tabletop for your molten-hot laptop. It's available in a number of soothing hues, and while it's fully compatible with mobile PCs and Macs up to 17-inches in size, we're still waiting to hear back about compatibility with UMPCs, MIDs and Linux-based netbooks.

Gallery: Belkin justifies $30 for a pillow, calls it CushDesk

New cooling material keeps heat down in densely packed electronics

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 9th 2009 at 3:17AM

Oh sure, liquid cooling rigs are all the rage, but they aren't too useful within minuscule things like netbooks, MIDs and pocket projectors. The always churning minds over at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft are already on the issue, recently conjuring up a new material designed to "efficiently dissipate heat even in devices with densely packed components and that can give increasingly miniaturized electronics a longer life." Researchers at the entity's Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Applied Materials Research have teamed with gurus from Siemens and Plansee to create the substance as part of the EU project "ExtreMat." Unfortunately, details beyond that are few and far between, but given that demonstrations have reportedly "already been produced," we'd say it's well on its way to infiltrating things far smaller than your mind can grasp.

EcoDrain heat exchanger makes good use of warm waste water

by Darren Murph, posted Mar 26th 2009 at 5:59AM

File this one directly in the "why didn't I think of that?" folder. As the bathroom gets more and more eco-friendly, the EcoDrain is stepping in to take advantage of all the hot water that goes to waste each time you shower. Put simply, this user-installed heat exchanger transfers heat from hot shower waste water to cold incoming water, essentially cutting water heater usage by as much as 40 percent. Of course, we've never seen a plumbing job that was anything close to simple, but for savings like this, it may just be worth the trouble.

[Via Inhabitat]

Kolon's heated Sport Life Saver III makes a trip to Yellowknife totally doable

by Darren Murph, posted Feb 3rd 2009 at 8:43AM

Kolon's Sport Life Saver III doesn't include any fancy extras like built-in Bluetooth, speakers or a pocket specially designed to keep old tater tots warm, but it does include an integrated heating module to keep your blood from chilling. Redesigned from the ground-up, this here coat sports a supple Gore-Tex Proshell 3L shell, a "survival kit," compass and a translucent hood. The standout feature, obviously, is the HEATEX function which provides heat of around 95 or so degrees Fahrenheit, though we're not told exactly how it's powered. Sadly, we're also left clueless when it comes to pricing and availability, but those who've been avoiding the slopes for fear of frigidness will probably pay just about anything.

[Via BeSportier]

Waste heat close to becoming useful in cooling / lighting applications

by Darren Murph, posted Dec 26th 2008 at 10:11PM

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.

Continue reading Waste heat close to becoming useful in cooling / lighting applications

Another team figures out how to convert waste heat into energy

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 25th 2008 at 12:56PM

Not that mad scientists haven't figured out a way to convert waste heat into energy, but a team from Ohio State University has developed a new material that does the same sort of thing... just way, way better. The new material goes by the name thallium-doped lead telluride, and at least in theory, it could actually convert exhaust heat from vehicles into electricity. According to a new report about to hit the journal Science, the material packs "twice the efficiency of anything currently on the market," though it still seems as if it's a good ways out from being ready for commercial applications. Nanotechnology geeks -- you've got a real treat waiting in the read link.

[Via CNET]

USB-powered HEAT ME stirrer: a coffee addict's dream

by Darren Murph, posted Jul 17th 2008 at 7:36PM

We'll go ahead and squash your hopes before you waste time pulling out the plastic -- this thing's just a concept, at least for now. From what we can glean, the HEAT ME is a fantastic device just waiting to be snapped up by Brando (or similar) and turned into the next must-have USB-powered gizmo. Put simply, the metal ends of this here stick warm up when plugged into your USB port, thus giving you a toasty wand to keep your hot tea / coffee at the proper temperature even when colleagues pull you away momentarily. Really though, is there any doubt this won't go commercial within the next six months?

[Via Coolest-Gadgets]

ElectraTherm's Green Machine converts waste heat into electricity

by Darren Murph, posted Jun 1st 2008 at 2:27PM

Converting residual industrial heat into something usable (read: electricity) has proven to be more than a novel concept on more than one occasion, and ElectraTherm's giving the process one more vote of confidence by installing its Green Machine at Southern Methodist University. Just this past week, the firm flipped on its first commercial waste heat generator at the Dallas-based institution, with hopes to generate "fuel-free, emissions-free electricity at three to four cents per kW/hr during payback period and under a penny/kW hour thereafter." The 50kW rig has so far exceeded expectations, and the firm is now forecasting that its units will have a "subsidy-free payback period of three years or less." Of course, we aren't told exactly how many zeros reside on the left of the decimal or anything, but folks in the area can get a tour of the installation later this month.

[Image courtesy of Jetson Green]

Heat from data center used to warm Swiss swimming pool

by Darren Murph, posted Apr 3rd 2008 at 4:04PM

Here's a novel idea: rather than stressing over the choice between solar or hydroelectric power sources to keep that green data center running, just build the thing near a community pool. Apparently that's exactly what's happening in Uitikon, Switzerland, as an IBM-built center erected for GIB-Services AG is using its excess heat to warm a local swimming pool. Put simply, the warmth emitted by the computers will be piped through a heat exchanger to boost the temperature of water used in the neighboring pool, and while the town had to cover some of the equipment costs to make it come together, it'll reap the oh-so-steamy benefits for free.

[Via FashionFunky, thanks Yash]

Alienwarez: Bios released to fix overheating Area-51 m15x rigs

by Thomas Ricker, posted Mar 19th 2008 at 6:56AM

Drop those pitchforks m15x owners and prepare to update, Alienware just released a fix to your overheating (and downclocking) problems. A new beta BIOS -- X29b P3A30 -- features a few tweaks including the ability to spin-up the fan to a new 5400rpm max. So more noise for more speed; sounds like a reasonable trade-off to us. Unfortunately, the new BIOS is only available if you email area51_m15x@alienware.com for a copy. A general release is expected shortly. Until then, however, it looks like all m15x shipments are on hold. Ouch.

[Via Laptop, thanks Kris J.]

Heat from GeForce 9800 GX2 causing system crashes?

by Thomas Ricker, posted Mar 19th 2008 at 6:05AM

By now you've had a chance to sample the reviews on nVIDIA's new flagship GeForce 9800 X2 graphics card right? Good, so did you happen to see the comments from bit-tech about heat? During their testing, bit-tech encountered "a number of heat-related crashes, hard locks and instabilities" with their ASUS Striker II Formula motherboard. They claim with 100% certainty that all the issues were related to the installation of the GeForce 9800 GX2. Apparently, the heat generated by the card coupled with 9800 GX2's air-flow restricting footprint caused the motherboard to enter an automatic self-protect mode as board components exceeded 90 degrees Celsius (190-degrees Fahrenheit) -- the GPUs never exceeded a reasonable 85 degrees Celsius. A fan placed directly above the motherboard's south bridge (responsible for HDD controller, I/O, etc) fixed the problem. Consider yourselves warned.

ChiliPad keeps your mattress hot, cold

by Darren Murph, posted Dec 21st 2007 at 7:50AM

Sure, we've seen air conditioned beds before, and you may think one of those fancy electric blankets circa 1990 could handle the warming duties, but why not plunk down for one device that handles both extremes? Enter ChiliPad, which, contrary to its name, actually does provide cooling or warming benefits while you snooze. Reportedly, the mattress topper uses water rather than air to generate temperature adjustments, and the company even compares it to a water-cooled computer -- talk about understanding your market, eh? If Chili is to be believed, this thing can be set to cool things down to 65°F or warm 'em up to 100°F, and yes, it does come in single- and dual-zone versions. So, for those who just can't seem to get the thermostat set correctly, you can pick one of these up now for around $479 to $999, depending on size.

[Via Gearlog]

How to stop your PC going up in smoke

by Conrad Quilty-Harper, posted Sep 2nd 2007 at 8:45PM

Finding out the hard way how combustible PCs are is a painful experience, especially when it's your extremely overclocked -- and extremely expensive -- gaming PC. Gearlog has a slightly bitter how to for avoiding the mistake of one of their unfortunate writers. We'd add our own personal little tip for preventing a PC fire: don't tempt fate and get a PC with a flamin' custom paint job.