{"id":"thermal-cascades","title":"Matching thermal needs across a shared infrastructure","regions":["physical-systems"],"question":"Can systems with different temperature requirements share a staged thermal infrastructure more effectively than isolated devices?","formulation":"The proposal moves between device, building, and wider infrastructure scales. It later favors a limited prototype whose useful operation could fund further research, and considers routing warmed fluid to a more appropriate stage.","representations":[{"name":"A network of thermal demands and returns","affords":"Makes temperature requirements and connections explicit.","loses":"A graph alone does not account for pumping work, losses, or temporal mismatch.","epistemic_kind":"reconstruction"},{"name":"Nested zones or staged loops","affords":"Organizes distinct temperature needs spatially or sequentially.","loses":"Geometric nesting need not be the best thermodynamic or maintenance design.","epistemic_kind":"reconstruction"}],"tension":"System-wide matching may help where a device-level comparison misses value, but larger infrastructure creates losses and coordination costs.","challenge":"At what scale does useful matching outweigh distribution, conversion, control, and maintenance costs?","development":"active","epistemic_kind":"reconstruction","evidence":["basis-thermal-cascades"],"next_move":{"text":"Start with measured device heat flows and a full boundary for energy and auxiliary work; compare to separate systems without assuming a net gain.","epistemic_kind":"model_proposed"},"open_questions":["Can systems with different temperature requirements share a staged thermal infrastructure more effectively than isolated devices?","At what scale does useful matching outweigh distribution, conversion, control, and maintenance costs?"],"formal_status":"open_problem","version":1,"content_hash":"492c91525c5c6bfd1ce122658dd82223ff00c01b753fa957d7f36d700f6d1b44"}