In article , Richard J Kinch
says...

Gary Coffman writes:

Power is not a conservative quantity. Energy is, and the energy not
released is retained in the tank. In other words, power = energy/time.

Your statement is contradictory,

Actually not at all. It is exactly, and technically
completely correct. The conservations laws do indeed
talk about *energy* and not the time rate of energy
delivery.

although I think I understand what you
mean. Power can be converted to heat and thus not "conserved". I
suppose what I should say is that the power going into the regulator
either comes out the other side, or is lost as heat.

I suggest you read up an introductory thermodynamics book.
First off, gary's comments were that power (time rate
of energy delivery) is *not* conserved. What you mean to
say above is that "*energy* can be converted into heat..."
which is of course true, but in doing so it IS conserved
as heat is a form of energy. If you do all the bookkeeping
all the numbers add up. Mechanical work, heat, kinetic
energy, stored potential energy, all sum to a constant.

Similar puzzle: shorting a perfect capacitor with a perfect conductor.
Where does the energy go?

The only place it can go: radiation.

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