Posted by Bob P (62.252.0.5) on December 18, 2002 at 09:07:33:
In Reply to: Re: Open Question To Group On Heat posted by Ron Flory on December 18, 2002 at 07:38:30:
: The United States produces about 3800 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year and the demand is growing. Production is from six types of generation.
: 1) Coal 1968 BK
: 2) Nuclear 754 BK
: 3) Natural Gas 612 BK
: 4) Hydro 273 BK
: 5) Petroleum 109 BK
: 6) Green 84 BK
: Since coal was the largest producer I'll us it for an example in the amount needed. A pound of coal supplies enough electricity to light ten 100 watt bulbs for about an hour. So one pound = 1 kilowatt, that comes out to 984 million tons of coal burned in one year for the U.S. alone.
: The heat produced from the use of electricity is almost nothing compared to the wastes of it's production from fossil fuel.
Hi again,
Many thanks for the above info but it doesn't directly answer the question.
In the list above, nuclear could be considered the oldest form of energy, having been formed in the early stages of the universe(although it is probably the newest to be exploited).
The others are fossil fuels, which are basically stored solar energy.
None of these affect the First Law because we are just converting one form of energy into another (with loss).
Even wind and wave power is just a conversion of mechanical energies, although much "greener".
The back of your refridgerator gets hot because the inside gets cold (with work being done by the compressor).
If we make the world hotter with a Bessler Gravity machine, what's going to get colder?
I can't get my head around this one..... :¬)
Bob P