The Energy Corner
I have been in the solar business for over 30 years. I have a good knowledge of the science of energy and what can be done to save energy. I will spend time describing how different types of solar energy production work. As well as energy usage in homes and vehicles.
The basics of energy:
“Energy can neither be created nor destroyed” This is the first law of thermodynamics. What this means is that the amount of energy you can get out of something cannot be more than is put in. Work is defined as the amount of energy that it takes to raise an object to a certain height or temperature i.e. potential energy. The amount of work you get out of a system cannot be more than you put in.
Heat can be changed into motion and motion can be changed into heat. You can also exchange weight for distance, mechanical advantage. If you have a 2 pound weight at one end of a lever on the ground and a one pound weight at the other end of the lever in the air you will lift the 2 pound weight if the length of the lever is more than twice as long on the one pound side. The two pound weight now has more potential energy than it did before. And the one pound weight has less. The potential of the whole system has not changed. In reality friction in the bearing and air have removed a very small amount of that potential from the system.
Motion can be changed into heat, a simple example of this is rubbing your hands together. You can change heat into motion by putting water on the stove to boil. The cover on the pot will jump around as the steam escapes.
There are many other form of potential energy we use every day. Electrical charge is one of them. Heat potential is another. A spinning wheel another. If one object is warmer than another i.e. a piece of steel in the sun is warmer than the surrounding air than work can be done with that difference. Another is chemical energy or burning. The potential energy of the gas being used by a stove is greater than the by-products of the combustion. A gas under pressure in a spray can is another example of potential energy. And if you were to heat that can the potential would go up until the can ruptured. What a mess.
All substances can be looked at in terms of their potential energy. And every one of them has potential in many of the ways described above. A piece of wood has chemical potential in that it can be burned and may have potential in the it can fall lifting something else. It is perhaps warmer than the surrounding area having heat potential.
We as human animals take the energy of our food and convert it into work.
So in order for us to get work done we use something at a higher potential to raise the potential of something else.
Bill Sibner
Prime Solar Co.
646 8383