Am 17.05.2010 13:37, schrieb gregjohn:
> Hi. I had an argument with a friend about solar cooling.
>
> I fully understand the physics of solar photovoltaics-- photon comes in,
> electron gets pushed somewhere.  I fully understand the physics of heat pipes--
> you can end up cooling something by having a phase-change object that gets to
> move around inside a pipe.
>
> I had an argument with someone who was apparently an insider in the industry
> about passive solar cooling.  He couldn't describe it to me in a way that didn't
> seem to be a gross violation of physics.  It sounded like a heat pipe, where you
> heat up one end, but then because some heat is naturally flowing, extra heat
> decides to come along for the ride.  That just didn't seem to float.   I did
> some googling and the only thing I could find was the use of electric fans
> powered by solar cells.
>
> Any ideas what is physically going on here?

Probably something broadly similar to how the water in a steam boiler 
can be replenished by a steam injector (you get yourself some steam from 
the boiler, shoot it through some suitably designed nozzle arrangement 
back into the boiler (duh!), and have it drag some cold water with it 
along the way (duh again!)): It's one of those things where us 
non-enlightened folks just have to trust the scholars of the arcane art 
of thermodynamics that their black magic works for real.

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