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I'm quite sure my water heater does not store electricity. It stores hot water, and it completely lacks the ability to turn hot water back into electricity. At

I'm quite sure my water heater does not store electricity. It stores hot water, and it completely lacks the ability to turn hot water back into electricity. At best I can use electricity at surplus times to heat water more cheaply, but that doesn't make it 'an electrical storage device'. I cannot attach a light bulb to it, for example, so you cannot use it during dark, quiet days to compensate for the lack of renewable power.

WalterBright 5y ago
I am amazed that anyone would infer from my post that I was suggesting using your hot water heater to generate electricity.
- themaninthedark 5y ago
  Probably your first line is what caused the confusion. >The simplest energy storage solution is your hot water heater. Turning on everyone's hot water heater when there is surplus electricity, and turning them off when there's a deficit, is a very low cost solution. People want a storage solution, not a surplus use solution. Using peak sunlight or wind to heat water isn't going to be useful for a factory or server farm. The only thing that sort of load shifting helps is to diminish peak load. Yeah, it is probably a great idea to charge your electric car during the day at work as opposed to at night. Maybe a good idea for hot water too, until you have company or teenagers who manage to use up your water in the afternoon. The pile of rocks to store heat sounds like a nonstarter to me, unless you plan to retrofit a bunch of houses and hope that the heat stored isn't depleted faster for any reason. Otherwise broken pipes at best and deaths at the worst. Not sure how much space you would need for something like that but seems like a problem for small apartments, either the heat leakage would overheat the place or you wouldn't store enough to keep warm.
  - WalterBright 5y ago
    > unless you plan to retrofit a bunch of houses I said it was a next step. Besides, the government building code constantly adds new requirements for energy efficiency. That's why we have double pane windows today. It was mandated for new construction. > Otherwise broken pipes at best and deaths at the worst ??? It's a pile of rocks in a box.
    - themaninthedark 5y ago
      If you are relying on your box of heated rocks to keep your house warm and cooling occurs faster than planned you are left without heat.
      - WalterBright 5y ago
        > occurs faster than planned Then you didn't do the engineering properly.

WalterBright 5y ago

I am amazed that anyone would infer from my post that I was suggesting using your hot water heater to generate electricity.

themaninthedark 5y ago
Probably your first line is what caused the confusion. >The simplest energy storage solution is your hot water heater. Turning on everyone's hot water heater when there is surplus electricity, and turning them off when there's a deficit, is a very low cost solution. People want a storage solution, not a surplus use solution. Using peak sunlight or wind to heat water isn't going to be useful for a factory or server farm. The only thing that sort of load shifting helps is to diminish peak load. Yeah, it is probably a great idea to charge your electric car during the day at work as opposed to at night. Maybe a good idea for hot water too, until you have company or teenagers who manage to use up your water in the afternoon. The pile of rocks to store heat sounds like a nonstarter to me, unless you plan to retrofit a bunch of houses and hope that the heat stored isn't depleted faster for any reason. Otherwise broken pipes at best and deaths at the worst. Not sure how much space you would need for something like that but seems like a problem for small apartments, either the heat leakage would overheat the place or you wouldn't store enough to keep warm.
- WalterBright 5y ago
  > unless you plan to retrofit a bunch of houses I said it was a next step. Besides, the government building code constantly adds new requirements for energy efficiency. That's why we have double pane windows today. It was mandated for new construction. > Otherwise broken pipes at best and deaths at the worst ??? It's a pile of rocks in a box.
  - themaninthedark 5y ago
    If you are relying on your box of heated rocks to keep your house warm and cooling occurs faster than planned you are left without heat.
    - WalterBright 5y ago
      > occurs faster than planned Then you didn't do the engineering properly.