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Spinoff story
Reclaiming Waste Heat
A real-world story of NASA technology finding a life beyond the mission.
About this technology
Overview
Air-O-Space" heater based on spacecraft heat requires no fuel other than electricity to run fan. Installed in chimney flue heat pipes transfer heat from waste hot gases (but not the gases themselves) to fresh air blown across the other end of the pipes. It can transport roughly 500 times the heat flux of the best solid conductors with a temperature drop of less than 3 degrees per foot. This instrument has also been used by Kin-Tek Laboratories Inc. to produce an instrument to calibrate gas analyzers for air-pollution monitoring."