Alec Cameron said the following to Craig Healy on the subject of
solar power in apt? (19 Nov 97  18:30:34)
 AC> Hi Craig On (16 Nov 97) Craig Healy wrote to Alec Cameron...
 CH> Yep!  Not disagreeing with that at all.  I have used series-connected
 CH> diodes in a number of applications to get a fairly stable fixed
 CH> voltage drop.  Works well.
 CH> I think what we have is a terminology difference, not an "electrical"
 CH> one.  To you, the drop across the diode is fine.  To me, it's
 CH> something I'd like to find a better way to do.  Nothing mutually
 CH> exclusive there!
 AC> That word of yours "drop" annoys me. It ain't a drop, it is an
 AC> opposing emf. I baulk at the impression that the diode is wasting
 AC> energy, as would an "ohmic" ie resistive device. Getting hot!
 AC> It is behaving instead, as a bucking ie subtractive voltage, and stays
 AC> cool with it.
I'd like to live in that utopia where rectifier diodes have an "emf" and
never get hot... :-)
Why not? The term "emf" implies a source of energy, after all the
acronym stands for Electro-Motive Force. I think the words Motive Force
kind of describes it. However the term voltage "drop" implies energy
being consumed and not a power source like a battery.
Alec, if you read a little about P-N junctions on Fermi levels, energy
band gaps, conduction bands, depletion layers, contact potentials,
recombination sites, saturation currents, and electron/hole mobility in
semi-conductor junctions, you'll change your mind in that rectifier
diodes do indeed dissipate energy by emitting infra-red photons.
Hmmm... which reminds me you may be able to recover some of the
rectifier's losses by placing it in front of the solar panels?
 Mike
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