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New Heat Pump Will Last 10,000 Years

Posted by timothy on from the maytag-man-will-be-dust dept.

formaggio writes "Most heat pumps maintain an average useful life of 10-20 years, but researchers at the University of Stavanger in Norway (USN) and the University of Oslo believe that they have developed a new heat pump that will last up to 10,000 years."

13 of 191 comments (clear)

  1. Is the warranty transferable? by NotQuiteReal · · Score: 5, Funny

    They guy at Best Buy will still try to sell you the extended warranty too!

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  2. I don't get it by countertrolling · · Score: 3, Insightful

    An article about itty bitty peltiers? Do they come in white?

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  3. Poor estimation by DanTheStone · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is like the bridges built in the '60s that were supposed to last over a hundred years, but need to be replaced now. By the time they have to be replaced, the companies manufacturing them will simply no longer exist to sue and will have moved on to Carbon Fiber (the next 100+ year technology that won't last nearly 100 years).

    1. Re:Poor estimation by hitmark · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Part of that problem, iirc, was the US Army going with a different, cheaper, ammo then intended during design.

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    2. Re:Poor estimation by phayes · · Score: 3, Funny

      Why go ruin a superficial anti-military rant with facts?

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    3. Re:Poor estimation by blair1q · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Most of it was because it was designed only for firing and carrying specs and tested only in clean conditions.

      Jump into a couple of foxholes and you're disassembling the fucking thing to get the sand out from between the bolt and the receiver. Whereas you could shake an AK-47 clean in a muddy puddle and come up firing.

      If the ammo added problems, that's the ammo's problem. The M-16 was a weapon characterized by an occasional failure to fail.

    4. Re:Poor estimation by Firethorn · · Score: 4, Informative

      It's worse than that.
      Colt's M-16 was designed around a newer, cleaner burining rod type powder compared to the older ball type powders; but it also included a chrome barrel and integral cleaning kit in the stock. It was advertised as 'needing a minimal amount of cleaning'

      The Army testing team, being hostile to the idea of switching away from a .30 caliber rifle, had sabotoged Colt's acceptance trials. When McNamara found out, he basically ordered the switch to the M16, but they continued to sabotoge the effort, taking Stoner's 'self cleaning' comments to not issue cleaning kits even as they deleted the chromed barrel and substituted dirtier ammo.

      Basically, the M-16A1 was mostly just returning to Colt's original specifications.

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    5. Re:Poor estimation by 19thNervousBreakdown · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Yeah, skyscrapers today just don't compare with skyscrapers from ancient Rome.

      And have you seen those entire buildings they put up in a couple months with a crew of 20 or so? I bet they won't be standing in 2,000 years.

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  4. 10,000 by swanzilla · · Score: 4, Informative
    The 10,000 number was pulled out of the air for emphasis. From a meatier source

    The miniature pumps will just continue to pump. We stick fans on them, and they must be replaced, but the heat pump itself will stay and be equally effective after 10 000 years," Bording continues.

    Misleading headline, both on this blog post and on the blog post that this blog post cites.

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  5. Solid state heat pump - Peltier Junction?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Solid state heat pumps exist already. It is called Peltier Junction. They are not used because their efficiency is bad.

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peltier_effect

    The COP of current commercial thermoelectric refrigerators ranges from 0.3 to 0.6, only about one-sixth the value of traditional vapor-compression refrigerators

    So what is the break through in the little heat pumps?? TFA is completely uninformative on that. It doesn't even specify efficiency of the heat pump.

    PS. I've had an open loop heat pump for the last decade, and so far it didn't require "frequent inspection" or "maintenance" as TFA says it does. It comes with 20 year warranty. It is basically just like a larger version of a fridge. The only maintenance I can envision is simply cleaning the heat exchanger once in a while.

    1. Re:Solid state heat pump - Peltier Junction?? by blair1q · · Score: 3, Insightful

      TFA is on a stupid hippy-dippy design blog site run by children.

      I'm sure they're impressed, but anyone who's been reading this grade of journalism in Popular Science for a few decades is not.

  6. Re:Up to 10,000 years by Intrepid+imaginaut · · Score: 3, Funny

    Technically everything will last forever, it just changes state a lot over that period. :p

  7. Re:heat pump? by tnk1 · · Score: 5, Funny

    As I recall, there's a well known Jaguar advert where a pretty lady uses a stocking as an impromptu fan belt*.

    *I forget what the american term is.

    *It's "fan belt", but without the extra 'u'.