Just a little tidbit about rocket engines.

[Drunkrobot]

So I've been guided to an article by a fellow forum member:

http://arstechnica.com/science/2013/04/how-nasa-brought-the-monstrous-f-1-moon-rocket-back-to-life/

If you bring your attention to the second paragraph of the article, you will notice an interesting little nugget of engineering trivia on the Saturn V.

"The power output of the Saturn first stage was 60 gigawatts. This happens to be very similar to the peak electricity demand of the United Kingdom."

For a long time, I have admired this most astonishing machine. I thought I knew how much power it had. Then I was told that, for 150 seconds, it could've powered my country.

As it turns out, the Rocketdyne F-1 really did have the power of small nations.

Edited August 13, 2013 by Drunkrobot

[Budgie]

How would one convert the output of an F-1 into electricity to power homes, though? (In an exercise in hypotheticals) Water to steam using the produced heat to turn a generator?

[Drunkrobot]

I'm assuming it was a simple conversion of the energy released by the chemical reactions at such a scale (measured in joules) into watts. I claimed that the five F-1 engines together had the energy equivalent to the national grid. There are bound to be some countries that have peak demands of <12 gigawatts, or ~9.92 time travelling Deloreans.

[Budgie]

Of course, its just number crunching. Im imagining a rocket-engine power plant for fun here, wondering how you could make it work and be efficient in capturing the energy expelled by the F-1

[Drunkrobot]

Maybe point the nozzle towards a wind turbine?

[K^2]

How would one convert the output of an F-1 into electricity to power homes, though? (In an exercise in hypotheticals) Water to steam using the produced heat to turn a generator?

How about an MHD Generator? You can get efficiency comparable to gas turbine. Losses are still considerable, but like Drunkrobot said, there are going to be first world nations that such an engine would still be able to power.

[DerekL1963]

If you're harnessing the output of the F-1 directly, I'd do it in several stages... MHD, then maybe a gas turbine, then possibly a high temp/pressure heat exhanger (Sodium), then a low pressure one... But I doubt you'd ever be able to recover the full (theoretical) energy. Plus, will the overall reaction yield net power given the energy required to produce the LOX?