Koolance's Response to Hardware Labs "The Copper Radiator Myth"

[Cathar]

i.e. In a total breakdown of the laws of thermodynamics, the water discharge temperature has somehow managed to exit the radiator at 20C less than the air discharge temperature.

Okay, I'm going to have to withdraw this statement, as it's false. I had heard it a long time ago, and always believed it. Someone wrote to me an asked me to prove it. I broke it down to first principles and established a logical progression sequence of water molecules travelling top-to-bottom on a 2D plane, and air-molecules travelling from side-to-side acrosss the 2D plane, and then constructed some software to simulate it.

It turns out that it's quite possible for the average exhuast air-temperature to asymptote towards the water inlet temperature, while the water discharge temperature is significantly less than the average exhuast air-temperature. The disparate thermal capacities of the two mediums means that the water molecules that the air first strikes (i.e. at the entrance of a radiator) can transfer so much heat that the air warms up to pretty close to the water inlet temperature by the time it reaches the exit of the radiator, and so while the water molecules at the front air-entrance-side of the radiator are being cooled, those at the air-exhaust-side are barely being cooled at all 'cos the air has already heated up. In this way, it's possible for the air exhaust temp to approach the water inlet temp, while the water discharge temp may be less.

It is (of course) impossible for the air-temperature to ever be more than the water-inlet temperature though. So the proof that they are defying the laws of physics still holds true based upon the analysis in this post.

i.e. What they're claiming is still impossible for various of their data points, just that the singular data point that I first pointed out is theoretically possible.

My apologies for the confusion.