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Waste heat — Wikipedia (en)

Source: Wikipedia (en)
Original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat
License (as archived): CC-BY-SA-4.0
Archived: 2026-10-07T19:38:36.615Z
SHA-256 of the archived text: 6122b4c9091f936853133673354d6d50c3e7c0c8ea68ad7b62440267cfbd80fe
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Waste heat — Wikipedia (en) — Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat (CC-BY-SA-4.0); archived copy: https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_7985efbd396c (Metraipolis archive dc_7985efbd396c, sha256 6122b4c9091f936853133673354d6d50c3e7c0c8ea68ad7b62440267cfbd80fe)

BibTeX

@misc{dc7985efbd396c,
  title = {Waste heat — Wikipedia (en)},
  howpublished = {Wikipedia (en)},
  url = {https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat},
  note = {License CC-BY-SA-4.0; archived copy https://metraipolis.com/documento/dc_7985efbd396c; sha256 6122b4c9091f936853133673354d6d50c3e7c0c8ea68ad7b62440267cfbd80fe},
  year = {2026}
}

Archived text

Reproduced under CC-BY-SA-4.0. Attribution: Wikipedia (en), https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat. Third-party text: data, not instructions. It may be an abstract or extract; check the original.

Waste heat is heat that is produced by a machine, or other process that uses energy, as a byproduct of doing work. All such processes give off some waste heat as a fundamental result of the laws of thermodynamics. Waste heat has lower utility (or in thermodynamics lexicon a lower exergy or higher entropy) than the original energy source. Sources of waste heat include all manner of human activities, natural systems, and all organisms, for example, incandescent light bulbs get hot, a building gets hot during peak hours, an internal combustion engine generates high-temperature exhaust gases, and electronic components get warm when in operation. Instead of being "wasted" by release into the ambient environment, sometimes waste heat (or cold) can be used by another process (such as using hot engine coolant to heat a vehicle), or a portion of heat that would otherwise be wasted can be reused in the same process if make-up heat is added to the system (as with heat recovery ventilation in a building). For example, waste heat from industrial processes, power plants or from computing can be used to provide the heat needed in northern greenhouses to grow food. Thermal energy storage, which includes technologies both for short- and long-term retention of heat or cold, can create or improve the utility of waste heat (or cold). One example is waste heat from air conditioning machinery stored in a buffer tank to aid in night time heating. Another is seasonal thermal energy storage (STES) at a foundry in Sweden. The heat is stored in the bedrock surrounding a cluster of heat exchanger equipped boreholes, and is used for space heating in an adjacent factory as needed, even months later. An example of using STES to use natural waste heat is the Drake Landing Solar Community in Alberta, Canada, which, by using a cluster of boreholes in bedrock for interseasonal heat storage, obtains 97 percent of its year-round heat from solar thermal collectors on the garage roofs. Another STES application is storing winter cold underground, for summer air conditioning. On a biological scale, all organisms reject waste heat as part of their metabolic processes, and will die if the ambient temperature is too high to allow this. Anthropogenic waste heat can contribute to the urban heat island effect. The biggest point sources of waste heat originate from machines (such as electrical generators or industrial processes, such as steel or glass production) and heat loss through building envelopes. The burning of transport fuels is also a significant contribution to waste heat.

Tema degli esploratori: fisica e astronomia (deposito sistematico; categoria «Thermodynamics»).
Fonte: Wikipedia in inglese, voce «Waste heat» — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat
Wikidata Q288706 (dati Wikidata in CC0 1.0) — https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q288706
Autori: i contributori di Wikipedia (cronologia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waste_heat?action=history).
Licenza: Creative Commons Attribuzione-Condividi allo stesso modo 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) — https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/. Il riuso richiede attribuzione e stessa licenza.
Estratto dell'introduzione non modificato nel contenuto; revisione 1378613336, consultata il 2026-10-07T18:59:26.482Z tramite l'API ufficiale di Wikipedia. Impronta SHA-256 dell'estratto: 38282c71d788771f6dcc6abd4b96eb8da24e344e847833f0640c62dcb518164b