williams@kirk.DEC (John Williams 223-3402) (07/31/85)
Sorry, but space heaters are not 100% efficient. The energy spectrum is continuous from DC to Light and beyond. A space heater has an optimized bandwidth for infrared, yet produces energy in all bands, including light ( which is visible ), and sound ( you can hear them click as they expand and contract in phase lock with the thermostat ). Beyond normal energy output, there is also noise. If you were implying that it is efficient because all the energy is accounted for, I take exception to this definition of efficiency. The basic idea of entropy is that not all the energy is converted into a particular frequency band of selection. To put it in other words, not all of the energy is used to heat the room. John.
morse@leadsv.UUCP (Terry Morse) (08/01/85)
In article <3381@decwrl.UUCP>, (John Williams 223-3402) writes: > > Sorry, but space heaters are not 100% efficient. > > The basic idea of entropy is that not all the energy is converted into > a particular frequency band of selection. To put it in other words, > not all of the energy is used to heat the room. > I disagree with your "basic idea of entropy." If one could make a space heater that produced 100% of its energy in a small infrared band, the production of entropy would still be large. Entropy is an indicator of the irreversibility of a process -- it says nothing about a "frequency band" of energy output. Does anyone disagree with me? -- Terry Morse (408)743-1487 { seismo!nsc!cae780 } | { sun!sunncal } leadsv!morse