Technological Principles #1—Thermal Dynamics

by Tommy Underhill
January 25, 2018

Making Energized Air Kill Bed Bugs

The following is a simple explanation of thermal dynamics as used in the patented technology GreenTech Heat. First of all, there is no such thing as cold. Cold is just an arbitrary word used to describe the lack of heat. Heated air molecules are a form of energy that can be measured. There are two components of heat that are measured. One is temperature, which is measured in degrees by one of two common scales: Fahrenheit and Centigrade. The second component is energy, which is measured in BTUs (British Thermal Units), or for smaller amounts in “calories.” Most often, we will be referring to large amounts of heat. Heated air at a temperature of 180°F which then comes into contact with building materials has a higher level of pressure than air molecules inside an untreated structure or outdoors. High pressure will always move to low pressure whether these be air spaces or around building components when these two conditions come together.

Heat energy is stored at the atomic and molecular level. A good way to think about heat is excitement. The hotter the atoms, the more active they are. The more active the atoms are, the more active the molecules. This concept of movement, especially at the molecular level is important to us. All molecules move, even those in solids, they just don’t move very fast or very far. In liquids the molecules move a bit more, creating a more fluid state. In gases the molecules move very rapidly. In fact, they move so fast, that they don’t stay in contact with each other (like they do in a solid or liquid state). Heat moves from hot to cold. If a hot object touches a cold object, heat will be transferred from the hot object to the cold object. How much heat is transferred? The amount of heat transferred depend on:

1. How long the objects are in contact with one another,

2. The temperature difference between the two, and

3. Various other conditions.

The longer the objects are in contact, the greater the amount of heat that can be transferred. For example, heated building materials will continue to transfer heat from one layer of molecules to another until they reach a state of equilibrium. If these heated building materials form a void, as in a wall void, then the building materials will radiate their heat into the void, until the void achieves the same temperature as the building materials. Heat will be transferred to all these things. Hot objects will continue to give up heat as long as there is something colder (containing less heat energy) in contact with them. Heat is transferred to anything and everything that has less heat. This is not a selective process. Given enough time, the temperatures will become equal.

The use of ducts is the primary method for channeling heated circulating air to the treatment target. In reality, we are heating air molecules and blowing them most often through ducts in the case of direct fired heaters, into the treatment area where they give off heat to anything and everything they touch. If you direct hot air into a room and aggressively mix the heated air, the hot air will give off heat to every item in the room with which it makes contact. In the case of heated air, everything in the room is potentially touched by the convected heated air and by means of heat transfer, conduction and radiation, everything will become heated.

How is Heat Transferred?

The GreenTech Heat process relies heavily on conduction to transfer high pressure, heated air molecules to low pressure unheated items, materials or spaces.

What is Heat Conduction?

Picture in your mind a bunch of ping-pong balls bouncing all around and imagine that the ping-pong balls are heated air molecules. As the hot air molecules are brought into the treatment area, they come in contact with the walls, floors, ceilings and the like and they bounce off or hit the materials in the room transferring their high pressure heat to the lower pressure, cooler building materials or products that are being treated. When the hot air molecules touch the materials, they give or transfer heat energy to the molecules on the surface. The surface molecules then become hotter than the layer of molecules at the very next level. The hotter, high pressure molecules then conduct their heat to the next layer of molecules and so on until equilibrium is achieved. This is called conduction for the purposes of the book and the GreenTech Heat technology. It constitutes the primary method for transferring heat in the process called GreenTech Heat.