Store Heat For Later - Mass Heat Storage [A Heat Bank]

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hi_tech_guy_18
Posts: 120
Joined: Tue May 07, 2013 6:46 pm

Store Heat For Later - Mass Heat Storage [A Heat Bank]

Post by hi_tech_guy_18 » Wed May 08, 2013 1:45 pm

Heres 2 setups you can use to store heat overnight to heat the camper in the cold mornings with no fire going
Image

Setup 1 stores heat in the solid block of concrete in the ground once up to temp it should hold the heat very well due the dirt is a very good heat insulator

In use:
- To charge up Run both 1st pump and 2nd pump with a fire going and monitor the water temp coming back from the Ground Mass Heat Storage
- Cold mornings and all you do is turn on the 2nd pump and your Matrix Fan
[How it works is the heat stored in the concrete block gets Exchanged into the cooler water your plumping into the Blocks Pipe Coils thus Heating the Water which then heats your home until you have a fire going or the exchange process can no longer heat the water due the cement is then the same temp as the cold water coming in]


Setup 2 uses 4x Hot Water tanks ( Indirect Copper Cylinder hot water immersion heater tanks with Central heating loop coil pipe) in series
FOR REFERENCE ONLY >> screwfix.com/p/rm-indirect-copper-cylinder-1050-x-450mm/40082

(you can find them in scrap yards) or use the USA Equivalent
what nice about setup 2 it water separates into temperature layers (Convection layers) (Higher temp water at the top of the Cylinder lower temp water at the bottom of the Cylinder)
And getting them with the Coil pipe exchanger means water from your Stove can Give all tanks a Boost of heat before the water joins the Mass Heat Storage system in the cylinders making them all equal temps

It possible for setup 2 to keep your home warm for days without a fire even do throw out the night heating just by controlling the 2nd pumps ON OFF States and Spin RPM
A Motor control timer on the 2nd PUMP can Run a ON for 2 mins and then Off for 10 mins (A good motor controller you can slow down there RPM of the pump to slowly ticks over to keep water in the system pipes moving Enough to keep warm but not slow Enough to cool down in the pipes )
And when the stove fire going run the 2ND Pump at full power to recharge the whole system much faster and Correct any Heat Balance issues within the Cylinders
Whats also nice about setup 2 is it can be above ground in a Insulated Garden Shed with insulated pipes to the camper

about the shed insulation it can cost nothing but a paper shredder and Free Junk mail / old newspapers given to you by co-workers Since you don't have to worry about electrical fires (Pimps in the Camper) all you do is Lift the roof and put in the shredding after a summer you should have 1 meter Paper shedding insulation around the hot water tanks and pipes (It will keep in even more heat)

techman
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Re: Store Heat For Later - Mass Heat Storage [A Heat Bank]

Post by techman » Thu May 09, 2013 9:20 pm

Wow, thank you for taking the time to post all this.

I have seen buried concrete mass heaters before online but never actually considered the possibility for myself. I think the cost of the second version would be better for me due to using scrap tanks.

But can you really have enough heat for days? I can see it being enough for a single day. But more than one? Hard to believe.

My little wood stove would heat up the water in short time. It is designed for that purpose and does a very good job of it.

hi_tech_guy_18
Posts: 120
Joined: Tue May 07, 2013 6:46 pm

Re: Store Heat For Later - Mass Heat Storage [A Heat Bank]

Post by hi_tech_guy_18 » Fri May 10, 2013 6:01 am

Its all about Water Flow and pump control and the Convection layers if you want to do days But it is also possible to up scale the number of tanks even Tank Sizes so sute your requirements too

Convection Temp layers as longs your not disputing them too much in the tanks and the convection process will keep separating water temps in layers (A Very Slow PUMP) then the system will last days
Plus also You probs get a few passes with the hot water each time it goes throw the Matrix Heater Radiator (esp if you heavily insulate the Pipes to and from the Matrix heater)

If you wanted to in future you could add a Air Conditioning + Heat exchanger To Pull heat even from luke warm water (Below room temp) above 0°C and still heat the Camper But that's when you have Both a Massive Battry bank and huge solar array + wind (even on a dull day it able to collect enough daylight to recharge the system in 3-6 hours) and have the Air Conditioning aggressively controlled for very short (3~5~10Mins) runs and long brakes (30~60Mins)

techman
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Re: Store Heat For Later - Mass Heat Storage [A Heat Bank]

Post by techman » Sun May 19, 2013 10:15 am

I wish I had my own land so I could do all of this. For now I plan to dig some holes and buy pipe to cooling. But even that is pushing the limits on rented property where I am living in a situation where I could have to leave at any time.

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