Question Bank H 1
Question Bank H 1
Question Bank H 1
15. An inventor claims to have developed a heat engine that receives 700 kJ of heat from a source
at 500 K and produces 300 kJ of net work while rejecting the waste heat to a sink at 290 K. Is this a
reasonable claim? Why?
16. In an effort to conserve energy in a heat-engine cycle, somebody suggests incorporating a
refrigerator that will absorb some of the waste energy QL and transfer it to the energy source of the
heat engine. Is this a smart idea? Explain.
17. Consider a building whose annual air-conditioning load is estimated to be 120,000 kWh in an
area where the unit cost of electricity is $0.10/kWh. Two air conditioners are considered for the
building. Air conditioner A has a seasonal average COP of 3.2 and costs $5500 to purchase and
install. Air conditioner B has a seasonal average COP of 5.0 and costs $7000 to purchase and install.
All else being equal, determine which air conditioner is a better buy.
18. An experimentalist claims that, based on his measurements, a heat engine receives 300 kJ of
heat from a source of 500 K, converts 160 kJ of it to work, and rejects the rest as waste heat to a sink
at 300 K. Are these measurements reasonable? Why?
19. A house that was heated by electric resistance heaters consumed 1200 kWh of electric energy
in a winter month. If this house were heated instead by a heat pump that has an average COP of 2.4,
determine how much money the home owner would have saved that month. Assume a price of 8.5
Rs/kWh for electricity.
20. You are an engineer in an electric-generation station. You know that the flames in the boiler
reach a temperature of 1200 K and that cooling water at 300 K is available from
a nearby river. What is the maximum efficiency your plant will ever achieve?