And in case of a heater, some energy is going to be converted into light and sound and probably other stuff that I don't know.

100% efficient!!! You're using all the energy to do meaningful work!

Electronics teachers generally clarify "other than resistive heaters"

math as a side effect

That's a funny way of spelling porn

Perhaps this is a dumb question, but perhaps it is not:

If you just had, in say a studio apartment, or a single bedroom, basically just a large container of water, where the container is made of something fairly to considerably thermally conductive...

Would or could this act as something like a thermal regulator for the room, to a potentially useful degree, such that it could ease the overall power usage of an AC/Heating system?

The water doesn't do anything, in like a designed machine sense; its not part of plumbing or heating, its just a big ole tank of water, sitting there.

The idea I am going with is something like how large static bodies of water act as regulators for nearby climate zones, through a day night cycle ... they tend to keep temperatures in the surrounding area a bit more stable, though of course humidity and the water cycle have other effects in a more open weather system.

I also realize there are a lot of potentially confusing or confounding variables at play here.

But my thinking is that maybe, at some scale, in some conditions, this could basically normalize your day-night temperature cycle, at least somewhat.

Obviously in real world, just a simple tank of water would potentially freeze in winter, or boil in summer, in more extreme environments, that you'd at bare minimum have to have some mechanical system to prevent problems... but uh, ... yeah.

Depends on the god.

Can heat pumps drop below 100%?

GAH! Unless you personally disinfected them and wiped them clean of disinfectant, GAH! Know how many people play footsie with those?

A completely valid pannini press, imo.

Like this is literally the 'modern problems require modern solutions' meme.

I've used older PC battlestations of mine as 'bonus' spaceheaters more than once, lol, sorta like those 'pocket warmer' apps for phones that would just run some absurd computation that would redline the cpu, hahah!

Noise would be a small but non-zero form of heat loss that shouldn't contribute to temperature increase

Sounds like adobe sorta.

Lots of places in the desert with big walls.

Yes, this is called thermal mass, or more scientificly, heat retention. The more stuff you in have a space, the more resilient to change it'll temperature it is. Insulation, is basically putting a bunch of high retention materials in perimeter of a building so that it stays more consistent

Having been on long term sick leave for 15 years means you have to do something with your time and I spend a lot of it learning new things to various depths.
I now understand why some (though not all) older people are angry: when you know a lot about a lot you see how bad many things are. There's so much inefficiency, shit design, shit quality, shit shit everywhere. It hard to not let it get to you.

I don’t think it’s a dumb question at all. I’m not a physics person but I think what you’re describing is a thermal battery. It’s the reason people put tiles in their ovens for smoothing out hot and cold spots and moderating temperature swings from the oven cutting on and off or opening the door.

Or light.

Large brick/stone fireplace+chimneys do similar in colder climates, holds heat in the winter and stays cooler in the summer.

Aren't computers damn near 100 percent efficient heaters?

Useful? No, mainly because you need circulation of the air to feel it.

Noise would turn in to heat as it’s absorbed, so it’s just heat with extra steps. Same deal with lights

Oh, I hadn't even thought of that. I always thought stoves were just way more efficient, but a giant old school hearth-thing actually makes a lot more sense now.

They can drop all the way to 0 if the temperature difference is high enough. You can't heat your house with a heat pump if it's 0K outside.

You see this with normal heating systems. My house has hot air heating with a big burner and vents in the rooms. It is great for instant heat but once it turns off you lose the heat just as fast. And if you dont have a vent in the room it can be pretty cold.

But the house I grew up in had water filled radiators in every room. Took ages to warm up the house but it would transfer an awful lot of heat into the brick walls so it would stay warm for a really long time after the heating shut off.

So in the old house in winter you really didnt notice the heating turning on and off but in my new one it is painfully obvious. I really want to rip it out and get a better system.

I didn't downvote you, but:

Ok, then... have a ceiling fan above it?

A very slow one, that uses little energy?

Hrm.

What about:

Radiant Barrier.

https://www.greenenergyofsanantonio.com/post/the-evolution-of-radiant-barrier-insulation-from-nasa-to-home-efficiency

Basically, as I understand it, this stuff is extremely good at reflecting heat... not... absorbing and containing it. And it is relatively stupidly cheap, for how effective it is.

Like, its so effective that the industry that makes traditional US home insulation batting... basically did everything they could to make it so as few people know this stuff exists as possible.

Indeed we’ve plugged in a bitcoin miner to our central heating and now heating is “free”. I’m not sure how profitable it is when you’re not using the heat though.

Fun fact! Your porn machine can also be used to shitpost.

Heat pumps generally come with an electrical resistive backup in case it's too cold outside, so even at arbitrarily low temperatures a heat pump can only drop to 100%

I have a little "tradition" of doing a playthrough of very hardware-demanding stuff in winter. Tarkov is one of my favs for this since it's unoptimized as hell and the post soviet aesthetics really fit the season

No, they're damn near as power-efficient as electric space heaters though if I'm not mistaken, but these are not 100% efficient.

At that point, the heat pump is off and you're using a resistive heater. You can't just glue an LED to an incandescent lightbulb and call it a 50% efficient incandescent lightbulb.

I may get flack for this but mine was the Cinematic Mod version of HL2.

Not because I wanted ... the terrible 'cinematic' music, or ludicrous XXX character model 'upgrades'... I genuienly liked the revamped maps, greater texture detail.

Forgive me for being argumentative, not my intention to be combative but now that I'm thinking more about it, isn't everything a 100% efficient heater? Like sound hits an object, and is turned into heat. Light hits an object and is turned into heat. Electricity travels down a wire and is turned into heat(usually).

No need to apologize for someone else. But I appreciate the thought.

And you are absolutely right. A ceiling fan, plus a thermal mass would work.

Secondary thought! What if you attached a bunch of processor heat sink type fins to the mass? Might not be good for long term regulation, but it would smooth out temperature curves daily.

Radiant barrier is a different insulation mechanism and is also good. The nice thing about radiant barrier is it requires very little material to do its thing. The best solution is a combination of the 2, but most insulation is still opperating by thermal mass.

I had some frozen imitation crab legs that I wanted to eat, but didn't want to microwave proper. I put them on top of my PC's GPU radiator and ran a stress test while watching stuff so it would thaw faster without overheating.

Isn't some energy still dissipated as light instead of heat?

That is in line with my understanding as well.

True. You know, the moment I left that comment, I thought that was pedantic, I shouldn't have said it, but by that point if I had deleted it it would just sit there saying deleted forever and that would bother me even more

Yes but then the downside is you have a giant porcupine that will draw blood, in the middle of the room, lol.

You could buff that out a bit though?

...?

That's sausage-bread though

Which travels to a location, hits it and is eventually converted to heat.

Wait. Hold my beer.

Badges of honor are not so easily dismissed.

When light is absorbed by surface, the material temperature increases and remits light at a longer wave, ussually in the IR spectrum. So its safe to say all light is heat enegry.

TechnologyConnections yt channel. I see his video on dishwashers mentioned a lot.

Yes but there might be nonmasochists in the household, guests, children, pets, etc.

Not everyone is defacto down with a blood sacrifice for the Omnissiah.

Oh.

Sorry, I'm... actually unfamiliar with concept.

Is that basically a sausage with a small loaf of bread baked around it?

... Some people keep track of their power bricks and know where they've been.

... Never thought 'good cable management' would become a hygiene/sanitation issue, but, apparently it is.

Sounds like your cold winter nights are not very cold.