[486]
ugh, that guy again?
any of you guys running anything for a large amount of storage?
The idea being then you only need to fire the boiler with a full draft every other day (or whatever) rather than continuous firing with a choked down fire. Leaving the house without relying on propane or electric backup heat. Shit like that.
I know they make tanks, sorta like an electric water heater without the elements in it, but that seems too easy/expensive. I was thinking something more like an IBC tote full of boiler-temp water.
another idea that's way interesting from a technical perspective is wax batteries. You got what is essentially a heat exchanger with one side full of high-melting-point wax. The magic of the system is that the phase change of the wax freezing lets off a shitload of heat at a steady temperature.
Water dropping a couple degrees only releases a little bit of thermal energy, but dropping the wax across its melting point has many times the energy released. Meaning you wouldn'd need nearly as much heated mass to store the same energy.
Heat exchanger would be an open-topped drum with a loop of a couple hundred feet of pex held inside, suspended in there so there aren't as many dead spots as wax doesn't conduct heat too good.
The only big trouble is the cost of the wax. Been thinking about calling all the local thrift stores to see if they could save all the broken/unsaleable candles they get as donations, but they've probably already got someone buying them up. Haven't called any of them yet though.
as said, any of you with wood boilers doing any of that sorta shit?
The idea being then you only need to fire the boiler with a full draft every other day (or whatever) rather than continuous firing with a choked down fire. Leaving the house without relying on propane or electric backup heat. Shit like that.
I know they make tanks, sorta like an electric water heater without the elements in it, but that seems too easy/expensive. I was thinking something more like an IBC tote full of boiler-temp water.
another idea that's way interesting from a technical perspective is wax batteries. You got what is essentially a heat exchanger with one side full of high-melting-point wax. The magic of the system is that the phase change of the wax freezing lets off a shitload of heat at a steady temperature.
Water dropping a couple degrees only releases a little bit of thermal energy, but dropping the wax across its melting point has many times the energy released. Meaning you wouldn'd need nearly as much heated mass to store the same energy.
Heat exchanger would be an open-topped drum with a loop of a couple hundred feet of pex held inside, suspended in there so there aren't as many dead spots as wax doesn't conduct heat too good.
The only big trouble is the cost of the wax. Been thinking about calling all the local thrift stores to see if they could save all the broken/unsaleable candles they get as donations, but they've probably already got someone buying them up. Haven't called any of them yet though.
as said, any of you with wood boilers doing any of that sorta shit?