> You forgot this: > "This power gain is caused by additional energy being > drawn from the > immediate environment..." > That energy must cause a reduction in temperature in the > immediate environment, > so we have air conditioning So far so good. That is, after all what heat pumps and air-conditioners do. A heat pump is about the closest thing to perpetual motion that actually works. I've never yet seen an explanation of the process that is intuitively comfortable. You can explain it with simple thermodynamic equations. But turning it into common sense seems another matter. By all means someone do a good job of explaining it in simple terms. But be sure to explain intuitively at the same time why an electric heater cannot pedestal on the same base heat source that the pump does. [[Y' pick the bucket load of heat energy out of the well here and stick it up here and it gets this much hotter. So far so good. But you calculate the COP based on pulling the whole slice up, all the way from absolute zero, and standing it on local ambient. COP = Tamb_ab/Tdelat. So far so good. BUT the energy taken to do this is only, ... oops. ]] But > and solve global warming too.... ;) (and I know the comment wasn't serious) - it's a zero sum game - so unless you can keep the warming and the cooling apart you get nowhere. Russell -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist