3 ms·

You could probably invest in a thermal mass hybrid HVAC system e.g. use solar during the day to heat or cool a large thermal mass (thick interior concrete wall/

by sf_rob 8y ago

You could probably invest in a thermal mass hybrid HVAC system e.g. use solar during the day to heat or cool a large thermal mass (thick interior concrete wall/floor to whatever temperature you need it to be at night.

misterhtmlcss 8y ago
Aren't they using molten salt for this? I think I heard about molten salt being used in a few cases for energy storage. Too bad I can't recall the details. Have you heard about this?
- sf_rob 8y ago
  Oh sure, I more meant at the consumer level. At the production level molten salt is used to smooth out energy production rates at concentrated solar arrays. My understanding is that concentrated solar is no longer able to compete with photovoltaic production in most geographies.
gm-conspiracy 8y ago
Yes, this is a good idea, just expensive. There are both passive and active options. You need to drill pretty deep and have multiple wells, or have alot of land surface area and excavate (not too deep though). Other option is using water from a well or spring and dumping that water back into another well or stream (with an increase in water temp.).
jpao79 8y ago
Actually maybe a well insulated house could be considered a "thermal battery". If you look at the CAISO reports, a significant chunk of the duck curve is related to heating/cooling. If you had a super well insulated house, you could do the heating/cooling during the day. Instead today, people fire up the AC on overdrive when they get home in the evening to cool/heat the place down/up. What happens if your Nest could just fired it up at 3pm while the sun was still shining. In fact the opposite is done today to take advantage of early morning peak pricing, commercial buildings cool/heat at 3am to get optimal energy pricing. https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/retired-cpuc-commissioner-takes-aim-at-caisos-duck-curve#gs.qKikfJ4 https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/retired-cpuc-co...

by sf_rob 8y ago

misterhtmlcss 8y ago

Aren't they using molten salt for this? I think I heard about molten salt being used in a few cases for energy storage. Too bad I can't recall the details. Have you heard about this?

sf_rob 8y ago
Oh sure, I more meant at the consumer level. At the production level molten salt is used to smooth out energy production rates at concentrated solar arrays. My understanding is that concentrated solar is no longer able to compete with photovoltaic production in most geographies.

gm-conspiracy 8y ago

Yes, this is a good idea, just expensive. There are both passive and active options. You need to drill pretty deep and have multiple wells, or have alot of land surface area and excavate (not too deep though). Other option is using water from a well or spring and dumping that water back into another well or stream (with an increase in water temp.).

jpao79 8y ago

Actually maybe a well insulated house could be considered a "thermal battery". If you look at the CAISO reports, a significant chunk of the duck curve is related to heating/cooling. If you had a super well insulated house, you could do the heating/cooling during the day. Instead today, people fire up the AC on overdrive when they get home in the evening to cool/heat the place down/up. What happens if your Nest could just fired it up at 3pm while the sun was still shining. In fact the opposite is done today to take advantage of early morning peak pricing, commercial buildings cool/heat at 3am to get optimal energy pricing. https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/retired-cpuc-commissioner-takes-aim-at-caisos-duck-curve#gs.qKikfJ4 https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/retired-cpuc-co...