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Things you can do with diodes

(lcamtuf.substack.com)
325 points zdw | 2 comments | 03 Nov 25 23:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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Cymen ◴[04 Nov 25 01:04 UTC] No.45806433[source]▶
Also missing solar heating from diodes:

> This topic seems to be broadly misunderstood. It is 100% verified fact by both myself and others (including university researchers) that diode strings can produce more heat (or watt-hours, BTU) from a given solar panel than a bare resistance element.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=42XIbHA9Dv0

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Retr0id ◴[04 Nov 25 01:24 UTC] No.45806538[source]▶
Intriguing, but wouldn't it be even more efficient to just paint something black and let the sun heat it directly?
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1. cwillu ◴[04 Nov 25 02:12 UTC] No.45806785{3}[source]▶
At the cost of very efficiently radiating that heat back out into space at night.

Making electricity and then using that electricity to heat something elsewhere lets you insulate, effectively allowing you to create a box that heat energy can only pass one way.

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2. jaggederest ◴[04 Nov 25 04:26 UTC] No.45807411[source]▶
We have a one-way diode technology for heat, it's called "glass", and it'll bump your efficiency by about 25% versus uncovered flat plates on a still day. More in windy conditions etc, lots of hand waving assumptions about spherical cows in a vacuum etc.