Idea for self-running A.C?

Question

Iv'e had this idea for a self-running air conditioner. This may seem an odd time, coming into colder seasons, but I'd still like to confirm the idea.

Heat is a form of energy, correct? Well, why can't something be powered by heat? How the machine basically works:

A certain mechanism/material absorbs the heat in the air ind comverts that into kinetic/electric energy. That energy rotates a fan, which pushes the now cooled air(the air which the heat was absorbed from).

Is there any way of implimenting this, and is it even possible?

Thanks for your responses, guys. *stupid technology*

In response to enginerd:
I guess your'e right. You cant move heat from something that's 92 degrees to another object with the same temperature. Darn. Welp, I guess if it was possible, I wouldn't have been the person who came up with it first...

Thanks TM. Thats really encouraging.
I'll get to work, and hopefully I won't have any "accidental" run-ins with electrical companies. *whistles*

Answer 1

That's how steam turbines work. Steam is heated up by burning something, and it then flows through a turbine, causing it to spin.

You can't do it in open air, though; that is, you can't just extract the heat from the air. In order for thermodynamic engines to work, you need a temperature differential. That is, you need a cold resevoire to move the heat into. That's why steam turbines work; the steam is heated to a temperature that is substantially higher than the temperature of the environment that the machine is located in.

Answer 2

There is a way of taking your idea to the next step without breaking the laws of thermodynamics. As stated, your idea violates the simple premise that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. Thus creating a perpetual motion machine of the first kind.

However, let us think about how you can create a technology that can be used with existing air conditioner technology to remove the necesity for electricity and not have to spend tens of thousands of dollars on solar cells.

Your idea was first investigated by Thomas Edison in 1883. He wondered how to use a diode and heat to generate free flowing electrons, or an electrical current. So, he created a thermionic tube which did just that. The drawback, this invention required a temperature of 1000 degress Celsius (yes, one thousand) in order to generate a miniscule electric current. It worked, but was inefficient.

MIT has improved the technology, but it still requires a temperature of 200 degrees Celsius to generate a one amp current. Not too shabby, yet still inefficient.

What you need is a thermal material that is capable of trapping static electricity and use the friction created by the air and fan to capture more electrons in the air. This material must also be capable of harnessing the sun's energy in conjunction with stagnant air temperatures.

Do this and you have an idea that can go somewhere. You had a good idea to begin with, just needed some laws of physics applied to it so it became something that one day could be a reality.

Answer 3

the reason no one has made anytlhing like this before is because we have never found any way for heat to move from a colder thing to a hotter thing

thermal energy always follows the temperature gradient

in your idea, energy flows out of the hot air into something, that something has to be COLDER than the hot air, and how did we make it colder? we didn't

it would work if you brought in ice to be your heat sink, and you could even power a fan with the temperature difference between the ice and the air you were cooling, but soon the ice is gone and you have to get more

heat is energy but to be useful, there has to be a temperature difference

thermodynamics is the study of energy flows among other things

our current understanding of thermodynamics leads us to believe that a system like you propose is impossible

it is a kind of perpetual motion machine

Answer 4

There is a way of implementing it. It would be a reverse carnot engine. The problem is pulling the heat from the air. First you would need a separate pump to get the heat in there which would use electricicity initially. Then you would need some sort of machine to order the energy which I don't even think exists as of yet or we would have extremely cheap energy bills. So with the current technology, no it would not be possible.

Answer 5

Not enough heat, man...