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The article headline is “BATTERY KILLER”

by ethagknight 8y ago

Xylakant 8y ago
Yeah. It replaces batteries. It’s not a battery.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- ZoF 8y ago
  It doesn't replace batteries though. It is a method of storing energy that may or may not be provided by a battery. A battery is by definition something capable of storing energy and outputting it as electricity, this is not a replacement for that. I understand its semantics but it's a pretty important distinction, this is not a battery replacement. It's an alternative which for this usecase results in the same desired outcome(hot water). Tl;dr- it's a bad title
- pofilat 8y ago
  It's far less useful than a battery, though, because heat is only good for heating things, which means you also need to provide fuel to convert it into electrical or motive applications. like computers and cars.
  - toast0 8y ago
    It may be more efficient to time shift heating loads than to time shift electrical availability with batteries. If heating loads are a significant amount of the total load, then this would help reduce the need for peaker plants or battery energy storage. And, if done properly, it provides a cost savings to the utility user too.
  - Xylakant 8y ago
    It’s far less useful in the general case, but substantially cheaper and more efficient in a special case that consumes a substantial chunk of the primary energy used. It’s not as if battery storage is lossless. Currently, heat generation is often done using primary energy, but that too, needs to be reduced if we want to tackle CO2 production levels. You can also use the same principle to store cold in summer: Cool down a vat of coolant (though water likely won’t do) at times when you have electricity surplus and use it later. Certainly, that not solving all problems, but it can kill battery usage for some cases.
- ethagknight 8y ago
  It doesn’t though. It serves a different purpose than a grid-battery at my house. I would avoid using my household battery UPS to ever heat water at all costs. This system just tinkers with my water heating to help the utility. The Battery Killer theme of the article is misleading.

The article headline is “BATTERY KILLER”

Xylakant 8y ago

Yeah. It replaces batteries. It’s not a battery.

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
ZoF 8y ago
It doesn't replace batteries though. It is a method of storing energy that may or may not be provided by a battery. A battery is by definition something capable of storing energy and outputting it as electricity, this is not a replacement for that. I understand its semantics but it's a pretty important distinction, this is not a battery replacement. It's an alternative which for this usecase results in the same desired outcome(hot water). Tl;dr- it's a bad title
pofilat 8y ago
It's far less useful than a battery, though, because heat is only good for heating things, which means you also need to provide fuel to convert it into electrical or motive applications. like computers and cars.
- toast0 8y ago
  It may be more efficient to time shift heating loads than to time shift electrical availability with batteries. If heating loads are a significant amount of the total load, then this would help reduce the need for peaker plants or battery energy storage. And, if done properly, it provides a cost savings to the utility user too.
- Xylakant 8y ago
  It’s far less useful in the general case, but substantially cheaper and more efficient in a special case that consumes a substantial chunk of the primary energy used. It’s not as if battery storage is lossless. Currently, heat generation is often done using primary energy, but that too, needs to be reduced if we want to tackle CO2 production levels. You can also use the same principle to store cold in summer: Cool down a vat of coolant (though water likely won’t do) at times when you have electricity surplus and use it later. Certainly, that not solving all problems, but it can kill battery usage for some cases.
ethagknight 8y ago
It doesn’t though. It serves a different purpose than a grid-battery at my house. I would avoid using my household battery UPS to ever heat water at all costs. This system just tinkers with my water heating to help the utility. The Battery Killer theme of the article is misleading.