On 03/05/15 12:45, newshound wrote:
On 03/05/2015 11:37, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
On 03/05/15 11:08, tim..... wrote:

"Roger Mills" wrote in message
...
On 02/05/2015 11:13, Bob Minchin wrote:


There are better ways of storing/using excess solar power by heating
water especially if you are already using electric water heating.


But it's not storing it in the sense of being able to convert it back
to usable electricity easily and efficiently - so it doesn't compare
with a battery and inverter.

and it would take a pretty big tank to use the summer sunshine to heat
water for my winter heating :-)


I did the calcs on that actually. It really isn't as big as you might
think.

A tank of hot water the size of a house, underneath it is probably enough


In much the same way that some big country houses had an "ice-house"
which kept them in cold gin and tonics through the summer.

Now ypou come to mention it, yes, probably.

The bigger a thermal store is, the easier it is to insulate as the ratio
of mass to surface are goes up.

bloody great hot water swimming pool of cast concrete surrounded by
expanded poly inside the foundations is the answer.

Use off peak leccy to charge, and pull the heat out via a secondary heat
exchanger

If you want a boiled baby just lower on the end of a string ;-)







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