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Heat storage is trivial and much cheaper than batteries on a house hold scale. Hot water tank as used for showers can also be used for central heating systems w

by jerven 8y ago

Heat storage is trivial and much cheaper than batteries on a house hold scale. Hot water tank as used for showers can also be used for central heating systems which use water to pipe heat. i.e. hot water is generated whenever power is cheap and piped to where it is needed when it is needed in the building. Non of this has real engineering issues, nor even refit issues. Some economic impact sure but nothing blocking. Like all real world power systems, we have drastically more production capacity than average demand. This would not change in a nuclear system as average grid demand is about 50% of max demand.

AnthonyMouse 8y ago
Heat storage allows you to efficiently move energy consumption from 9PM to 3PM. It doesn't allow you to move it from a cold month to a temperate one.
- danans 8y ago
  > It doesn't allow you to move it from a cold month to a temperate one. Sure it does. Just have to store it in something else: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-coupled_heat_exchanger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-coupled_heat_exchanger
  - AnthonyMouse 8y ago
    That sounds expensive and at scale likely to have a lot of weird unpredictable environmental effects. What happens when you heat the ground and the water in it evaporates? What happens when you cool the ground and the water in it freezes? What happens to indigenous vegetation if you're messing with the ratio of air temperature to ground temperature all year?
    - danans 8y ago
      > What happens when you heat the ground and the water in it evaporates? What happens when you cool the ground and the water in it freezes? What happens to indigenous vegetation if you're messing with the ratio of air temperature to ground temperature all year? Ground source geothermal has been deployed for decades without negative environmental effects. The ground a few meters down (where ground source loops are placed) is a huge thermal mass, whose seasonal temp varies little, and space heating/cooling of buildings is not a significant enough force to overcome its inertia. It is alao deep enough to have little effect on the air to ground temp ratio. The biggest factor in that ratio is the variance it weather itself. The ground source loops is highly localized near the building. Putting up the building and the road to it was probably more damaging to indigenous vegetation than anything the heat pump would do.

by jerven 8y ago

AnthonyMouse 8y ago

Heat storage allows you to efficiently move energy consumption from 9PM to 3PM. It doesn't allow you to move it from a cold month to a temperate one.

danans 8y ago
> It doesn't allow you to move it from a cold month to a temperate one. Sure it does. Just have to store it in something else: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-coupled_heat_exchanger https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground-coupled_heat_exchanger
- AnthonyMouse 8y ago
  That sounds expensive and at scale likely to have a lot of weird unpredictable environmental effects. What happens when you heat the ground and the water in it evaporates? What happens when you cool the ground and the water in it freezes? What happens to indigenous vegetation if you're messing with the ratio of air temperature to ground temperature all year?
  - danans 8y ago
    > What happens when you heat the ground and the water in it evaporates? What happens when you cool the ground and the water in it freezes? What happens to indigenous vegetation if you're messing with the ratio of air temperature to ground temperature all year? Ground source geothermal has been deployed for decades without negative environmental effects. The ground a few meters down (where ground source loops are placed) is a huge thermal mass, whose seasonal temp varies little, and space heating/cooling of buildings is not a significant enough force to overcome its inertia. It is alao deep enough to have little effect on the air to ground temp ratio. The biggest factor in that ratio is the variance it weather itself. The ground source loops is highly localized near the building. Putting up the building and the road to it was probably more damaging to indigenous vegetation than anything the heat pump would do.