logoalt Hacker News

mike_ivanov • yesterday at 6:14 PM • 3 replies • view on HN

Radiating 1MW at 500K (227C) with a 0.4MW heat pump takes about 200 m^2 flat sheet surface. Inputs - solar+nuclear for double fun. So - quite feasible.


Replies

lopsotronic • yesterday at 9:17 PM

Moves 1 MW of heat with 0.4 MW of work? I.e. 2.5 COP {coefficient of performance). That's insane, and I mean that in a good way. Could you dig me up a cite for that?

That's thumping the Carnot limit: [[T_cold / (T_hot − T_cold)]].

2.5, while rejecting at 500 K, cold side's at least 357 K (eeehhhhhhh 84 °C) . . . and that's an absolutely perfect Carnot machine. At 50% Carnot -- a pretty good heat pump, real world performance is 40-60 -- cold side's at 417 K (144 °C). 417k, feeding your GPU coolant loops.

➕ show 1 reply
ChickeNES • yesterday at 6:37 PM

And if you look at SpaceX's Starmind sats, they will have a 160 m^2 liquid radiator for 175kw/250kw peak compute.

cyberax • yesterday at 8:22 PM

Do we even _have_ semiconductors that can work at 220C? And if you're thinking about using some kind of refrigeration cycle, its efficiency is going to be bad.

➕ show 1 reply