- Joined
- 27 Jan 2008
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- Llanfair Caereinion, Nr Welshpool
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OK seen and used the iron laden brick type and also the water tank type even seen a central brick store and fans.
The main problem is to store energy only releasing it when required with a secondary problem with size. The small brick units are hopeless the larger brick units work well but whole house needs designing around them.
So the water type seem to be gaining ground with the added advantage can also use solar power to top them up. However the 100 deg C limit well really a little less than that does mean they become rather large.
In theroy other mediums could be used. Oil could be stored hotter and there is also the latent heat type where something often a salt changes for solid to liquid and back again to store heat. However although I know it can be done I know of no commercial system where it is done.
There is with pure heat a trade off between size and temperature the higher the temperature the more heat will leak out when not required. And the hotter a liquid the higher the danger so I can understand why we seem to have mainly brick and water systems but are there any other?
My interest is can they be used to store heat from a wood burner? Water boiling at 100 deg C is a problem as wood stoves can exceed that temperature something which could be heated to 600 deg C would be far better. Not likely to boil and smaller store required. There are FRF so fire should not be a problem with right oils. But if that easy I am sure others would already be using it. If not why not?
The wood burner has a big problem except for pellet burners there is no auto feed and so fires will go out and when running they tend to heat the home well over the temperature required. A heat store would allow the fire to go out and home still be heated and damp down the excesses.
The existing Megaflow and Willis systems will of course work but can they be filled with FRF instead of water? I would think not if main central heating was water it could boil the water. But maybe there is a way?
Power failure is one thought and likely there would need to be battery back up may be even solar power but question remains is there already a system working on between the heat used by water and that used with bricks and if so what is it called and does anyone have links to it?
The main problem is to store energy only releasing it when required with a secondary problem with size. The small brick units are hopeless the larger brick units work well but whole house needs designing around them.
So the water type seem to be gaining ground with the added advantage can also use solar power to top them up. However the 100 deg C limit well really a little less than that does mean they become rather large.
In theroy other mediums could be used. Oil could be stored hotter and there is also the latent heat type where something often a salt changes for solid to liquid and back again to store heat. However although I know it can be done I know of no commercial system where it is done.
There is with pure heat a trade off between size and temperature the higher the temperature the more heat will leak out when not required. And the hotter a liquid the higher the danger so I can understand why we seem to have mainly brick and water systems but are there any other?
My interest is can they be used to store heat from a wood burner? Water boiling at 100 deg C is a problem as wood stoves can exceed that temperature something which could be heated to 600 deg C would be far better. Not likely to boil and smaller store required. There are FRF so fire should not be a problem with right oils. But if that easy I am sure others would already be using it. If not why not?
The wood burner has a big problem except for pellet burners there is no auto feed and so fires will go out and when running they tend to heat the home well over the temperature required. A heat store would allow the fire to go out and home still be heated and damp down the excesses.
The existing Megaflow and Willis systems will of course work but can they be filled with FRF instead of water? I would think not if main central heating was water it could boil the water. But maybe there is a way?
Power failure is one thought and likely there would need to be battery back up may be even solar power but question remains is there already a system working on between the heat used by water and that used with bricks and if so what is it called and does anyone have links to it?