Quote:
Originally Posted by AC_Hacker
dhaslam,
Thanks very much for posting to our forum!
Your post was quite good, and more detailed than many posts, but I want to know even more about your thermal store. - Do you have any photos?
Photo below (I think, but can't see it in the preview) of the store in construction. There were pipes for air used initially for heating as well as two separate 1.5" water pipes.
- What is the total volume?
Total volume is about 180,000 litres
- Do you have any idea how much heat you are able to store and reclaim?
The initial heating idea using hot air didn't work properly. Too much heat was lost on transfer, fans melted etc. The panels were changed to heat through a heat exchanger this summer but the heat has just been used directly to the house initially when testing. The plan is to use the heat pump to cool the mound so that heat can be transferred into it at much lower temperatures in winter. This would be in addition to summer heating. The store holds about 100 kWh per degree of temperature change and that should heat the house for about five days but it may take longer than five days to heat it.
- Is your thermal store an original idea, or is it common practice in your area?
It is an original idea, I don't know of any others
- How are you storing & reclaiming energy?
The solar panels total about 30 sq metres but need direct sun to produce any useful heat. The surface of the collectors is Correx painted black. The fans now blow the return air into the bottom of the panels so that the fans stay cool. The heat exchanger is a large truck radiator. Maximum temperature reached in the heat exchanger so far is about 50C but it should reach 60C in the summer.
Your above-ground earthen thermal store is the first I have heard of...
Best,
-AC |
Very impressed with your efforts with home made heat pump etc.
I am hoping to have an old air to water heat pump modified professionally to boost the temperature of the water coming from the store. The ASHP worked quite well but only lasted two years, possibly the cold wet conditions were too much for it. The big advantage of using the warm water source is that the machine can be indoors and should have a fairly constant input temperature.