Not only people need to stay cool, especially in a summer of record-breaking heat waves. Many machines, including cellphones, data centers, cars and airplanes, become less efficient and degrade more quickly in extreme heat.
Cellphones and similar devices with lithium ion batteries stop working as well when operating in climates above 95°F (35°C)—this is to avoid overheating and increased stress on the electronics.
High temperatures can also change the way oils in your car's engine behave, leading to potential engine failures. For example, if a heat wave makes it 30°F (16.7°C) hotter than normal, the viscosity—or thickness—of typical car engine oils can change by a factor of three. So if it gets too hot, the oil may not be thick enough to properly lubricate and protect engine parts from increased wear and tear.
Additionally, a hot day will cause the air inside your tires to expand and increases the tire pressure, which could increase wear and the risk of skidding.
Airplanes are also not designed to take off at extreme temperatures. As it gets hotter outside, air starts to expand and takes up more space than before, making it thinner or less dense. This reduction in air density decreases the amount of weight the plane can support during flight, which can cause significant travel delays or flight cancelations.
Data centers, which are buildings full of servers that store data, dissipate significant amounts of heat to keep their components cool. To keep the centers cool, incoming dry air from the outside is often first sent through a moist pad. The water from the pad evaporates into the air and absorbs heat, which cools the air. This technique, called evaporative cooling, is usually an economical and effective way to keep chips at a reasonable operating temperature.
On hot days, air conditioner compressors have to work harder to send the heat from homes outside, which in turn disproportionally increases electricity consumption and overall electricity demand. For example, in Texas, every increase of 1.8°F (1°C) creates a rise of about 4% in electricity demand.
Scientists and engineers are developing ways to use and recycle the vast amounts of heat dissipated from machines. One simple example is using the waste heat from data centers to heat water.
Waste heat could also drive other kinds of air-conditioning systems, such as absorption chillers, which can actually use heat as energy to support coolers through a series of chemical- and heat-transferring processes.
In fact, waste heat from power plants could hypothetically support 27% of residential air-conditioning needs, which would reduce overall energy consumption and carbon emissions.
Extreme heat can affect every aspect of modern life, and heat waves aren't going away in the coming years. However, there are opportunities to harness extreme heat and make it work for us.
Central heating of water seems like one of those old techs that needs to make a comeback. Every bit of waste heat that just gets dumped back out into the environment is just that: waste. I think...
Central heating of water seems like one of those old techs that needs to make a comeback. Every bit of waste heat that just gets dumped back out into the environment is just that: waste.
I think we're going to see a resurgence of hydronic heating when pairing with heat pumps. Working water in to HVAC makes a lot of sense given the greater thermal capacity of water. Unifying refrigerant systems with smarter valve switching also has potential. Using the waste heat from my AC unit and refrigerator to heat my water before sending it to an indoor or outdoor compressor makes a lot of sense. Using hot/cold water to help regulate temp inside the home on top of forced air makes a lot of sense.
There are other benefits. Instead of 1 water tank, have 3: Hot water, potable water, grey water. Potable and grey water tanks can serve as thermal batteries to help with maintaining comfortable indoor temps. Heck, perhaps having a way to swap the hotwater and the potable tank in winter could further aid in heating. Leveraging greywater for flushing toilets will ease demand for potable water. Having a potable tank can help provide extra buffer for capacity for local water treatment (as well as potentially normalizing water pressure), possibly allowing for localized additions of potable water (say waste condensate from cooling systems).
The biggest untapped potential of extreme heat is using it to desalinate and sanitize water cheaply, more cheap than wind or photovoltaics. It's going to require some substantial engineering efforts to do so at scale though. I'm envisioning fully-enclosed above-ground water supply lines from the ocean that can desalinate and sanitize water as it travels through the desert, with the steam being captured and deposited into freshwater processing along the way.
Srinivas Garimella and Matthew Hughes
Central heating of water seems like one of those old techs that needs to make a comeback. Every bit of waste heat that just gets dumped back out into the environment is just that: waste.
I think we're going to see a resurgence of hydronic heating when pairing with heat pumps. Working water in to HVAC makes a lot of sense given the greater thermal capacity of water. Unifying refrigerant systems with smarter valve switching also has potential. Using the waste heat from my AC unit and refrigerator to heat my water before sending it to an indoor or outdoor compressor makes a lot of sense. Using hot/cold water to help regulate temp inside the home on top of forced air makes a lot of sense.
There are other benefits. Instead of 1 water tank, have 3: Hot water, potable water, grey water. Potable and grey water tanks can serve as thermal batteries to help with maintaining comfortable indoor temps. Heck, perhaps having a way to swap the hotwater and the potable tank in winter could further aid in heating. Leveraging greywater for flushing toilets will ease demand for potable water. Having a potable tank can help provide extra buffer for capacity for local water treatment (as well as potentially normalizing water pressure), possibly allowing for localized additions of potable water (say waste condensate from cooling systems).
The biggest untapped potential of extreme heat is using it to desalinate and sanitize water cheaply, more cheap than wind or photovoltaics. It's going to require some substantial engineering efforts to do so at scale though. I'm envisioning fully-enclosed above-ground water supply lines from the ocean that can desalinate and sanitize water as it travels through the desert, with the steam being captured and deposited into freshwater processing along the way.