Timeshifting domestic electic energy demand using a domestic heat store (for a post gas world)?

zeupater

michaels wrote: »

... I would have thought most homes could incorporate 2 cubic metres of storage somewhere?

Hi

The issue is really the combination of temperature and mass .... do you heat the storage to 30C-40C with a heat pump or 60C by other means?

In reality, 2 tonnes of thermal storage isn't much at all ... there's around 2.7 tonnes of bricks in a 'feature' wall in front of me which was built specifically to add thermal mass & that around the log-burner is at least 4-5x greater & raised to far higher temperatures, yet this almost becomes insignificant when compared to the total internal mass of the property ...

You really only need to remember the simple rough 'rule-of-thumb' calculation ... 1kW applied for 1hour raises 1tonne by 1C ... a cubic metre of water weighs 1tonne the same volume of steel would be around 7.8tonnes with bricks, stone etc falling somewhere between!

HTH
Z

silverwhistle

I'm sure more can be done, but it'll be an incremental affair and will need a bit of foresight and planning by government, both of which seem thin on the ground at the moment.


For retrospective installation finding space for 2 cu.m or digging up the floor is down the list for action, I would have thought! Many of us with solar panels already have diverters to hot water where we have tanks. Perhaps an easy regulation would be for all new properties to have hot water tanks?



My own list for energy savings for next year now include a new, non-draughty back door and mechanical HRV for the bathroom. Much of my water heating is by PV and heating is more or less all by the log burner in the lounge, all this may not be tenable when I get old and decrepit. But with a usage of c. 1000 kwh of gas a year at a phenomenal unit rate (no standing charge) it wouldn't take much to tip the balance towards entirely electric.


Lowering costs for heat pumps may change the calculation in the future, and if smart meters are used as they should be then there may times, overnight perhaps, when surplus wind power could be used for heating. Far better than paying wind farms not to produce, although I think this is more to do with the inadequacy of grid links. On these latter points I won't be holding my breath..