All materials are made up of atoms, normally joined ironically or covalently into molecules, and all atoms have some inherent motion and this motion of atoms is fundamentally what is defined as heat or thermal energy. As more energy is applied through various means; electricity, friction, light, breaking and forming of chemical or subatomic bonds or other atoms bumping into them and making them move more, then the material heats. On a macroscopic level, the sum of all these movements can be thought of as a fluid of heat that can be transferred from one material to another, or radiated into space, and of course, this fluid can be converted to other forms of energy such as electricity, light, and others.Didn’t catch that? This explains it.

The property of thermal energy flow must be minimized in situations when you want heat to stay where it is, such as the air in your house on a cold Colorado winter night. Different materials transmit heat at different rates and using this, the heat can be transferred from the furnace to the air, and then kept from escaping out the roof and windows. This is why good and properly installed insulation as well as well caulked double paned windows are important. Thermal energy can also be put to work with a standard or geothermal heat pump, collecting heat and transferring it indoors to further warm your house, or in the summer collect the heat indoors and transfer it outside or into the ground.

Thinking of thermal energy as a fluid that wants to move from hot to cold and then further thinking of ways to force the fluid to move against its normal flow, a myriad of technology can be used for many different applications.