Quote:
Originally Posted by JimmyClovis
Whether or not its possible, changing energy forms 3 times just in generation doesn't seem efficient at all (Thermal to hydrolic, hydrolic to mechanical in the generator, mechanical to electrical). This seems like a electrical generation source of last resort. Better to use thermal energy for thermal loads, mechanical energy for mechanical loads, etc, and reduce losses. The energy available to such a device should suit the end use needs.
|
The question precluded another project I'm going to be working on, actually.
I plan on heating my house as much as is possible with a solar thermosiphon system. Before I thought about thermal storage, there was going to be waste heat generated that would need to be cycled off somewhere, and the idea was to use it to create a few extra watts of electricity if it were feasible.
Since I won't have sun every day or for days at a time through the winter, and there is limited sun to begin with on my plot, so thermal storage is a necessity, which means that cycling the fluid back through the thermal storage will be more efficient.
I'm hoping to be able to get about 1,000 gallons worth of tanks for storage. I'm going to see if I can put a tank inside a tank, seal the inner tank and outer tank, and vacuum the space between them, to create a thermos bottle of heated thermal fluid.
I dont' really want to run ethylene glycol, I'd rather use something that's ecologically not destructive, should it leak. I hope I can run a mineral brine, but I'm having a hard time finding info on thermal fluid types.