Quote from: adesanctis on August 28, 2014, 03:42:33 PM

Yea you are getting it -

Honestly, think of it this way: your auto engine works on the same principles (minus the distributed networking). It burns fuel in order to provide propulsion, but the heat and the kinetic energy of the motor is captured to heat the occupants in the summer, cool them in the winter, and run all of the electronics housed in the vehicle. That's why we call the concept Exergy.

"In thermodynamics, the exergy of a system is the maximum useful work possible during a process that brings the system into equilibrium with a heat reservoir. When the surroundings are the reservoir, exergy is the potential of a system to cause a change as it achieves equilibrium with its environment. Exergy is the energy that is available to be used."

Back when I used to tinker, I thought about making a car engine that would run really hot. The cooling jacket of the engine would actually be a boiler, that would take the heat from the engine, and run a second, STEAM, engine. All the heat would be captured, even from the exhaust, and converted into boiling water to run a second engine. The heat would be used twice. The steam engine might put out almost as much mechanical force as the main, gasoline engine.

I never did this, as I was only a tinkerer. But think of using a small gasoline or diesel engine as the main engine. If you had good insulation, and if the engines could be built to withstand the heat, you actually might be able to run 10 engines (or any number) off the same heat until too much of the heat dissipated through the insulation.

Exergy is the start of something like this in the computing industry.