203
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
this post was submitted on 09 Oct 2024
203 points (95.5% liked)
Futurology
1751 readers
17 users here now
founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
This shouldn't be downvoted; it's a good point. I actually do expect that in a distant future that's positive, it would make sense to add artificial heat exchangers to the Earth.
The trick is that vacuum is a really good insulator, and theoretical maximum heat pump efficiency sinks down to "just" 100% gradually as the temperature gap gets larger. In order to move more heat, you have to make the heat exchangers pointed at the night sky hotter, so at some point you're bound to get diminishing returns.