Talk:PV Thermal Battery

Granted this is probably my Florida-centric recent memory/frame of reference thinking, but either an Open Source Adsorption Chiller (for Hydronic Cooling ) or even just an Open Source Adsorption Refrigerator would be HUGE for this to make sense in areas where Heating isn’t needed that much.

(short of a BIT of hot water for Showers (most machine machine cycles are done in Tap Cold Washing setting anyways)

Granted for a few states up, or ESPECIALLY in Maine / places where you have “heating season” and “open the screen windows” seasons the current status would probably work great (Is Missouri like this?)

Power-to-Heat-to-Power MAY be doable with something like an Organic Rankine Cycle or Photoacoustic Sterling Engine , or POTENTIALLY a Sterling Engine scaled up to make the needed temperature difference less (re that one Solar OTS (albeit now discontinued Design)

The Photoacoustic design may NEED that “blowtorch” temp so N/A for Hot Water, but is actively being developed in the DIY/OS Scene so may be at a high enough TRL for OSE to “plug and play” soon with it. It will probably work well with the IBC Tote Biodigester ‘s Biogas / RNG though so this may be useful for filling any gaps in solar.

Even if using Charcoal/Biodiesel/Propane or DME (due to an Owner not buying the whole biodigester system due to Cost, Legal/Insurance or even “ick” issues vs the sewer (and to a lesser extent Septic Tank Systems ) where “that is someone else’s problem” ) fed Hybrid Off Grid System may make sense for the Electrical Solar Backup

Even Off The Shelf Internal Combustion Generators or to a lesser extent Rooftop Wind / Micro-Wind / Micro-Hydro may be able to take the non-heating loads such as Lighting, Appliances, or Computers etc

On the note of ORK systems, some DIY/OS Designs out there used hardware more akin to a Roots Style Supercharger rather than a Turbine which while potentially less efficient is far easier to fabricate+maintain (No Turbine Balancing , Potentially less tight Tolerances / Material Requirements due to being thin+ultra high rpm’s etc

Furthermore, IF COST IS KEPT DOWN, and the device is stationary, efficiency is not the end all be all; akin to the “Oh the Panzer is Twice as Strong as the Sherman Tank…they just sent 3 Sherman Tanks” solution, if the Water is only 25% as efficient as a State of the Art Supercritical CO2 + Vacuum Brazed Micro-Tube Countercurrent Heat exchanger a la “Skylon”…then just use 4x as many totes + basic Radiators or Plate Heat Exchangers etc…

Also a bit of Parts Commonality with Low(er) Temperature Geothermal Energy which is neat

Rambling a bit but TLDR My concerns/suggestions are:

• This may be too regionalized due to (at least in Wealthy Countries/Certain Cultures) the widespread adoption of HVAC (and the associated Electrical Requirements of that) THUS
  • Either A.) Development/Sourcing of an Adsorption Chiller May be crucial to this strategy working/being a truly global “Killer App”
    • (albeit in terms of Incremental Development / Incremental Verification making the FINAL perfect global design may be too daunting to be a SMART Goal etc to be fair)
  • Or B.) Developing P2H2P Tech, and/or a Hybrid Off Grid System (Solar+ICE Genset+Small Battery+Much Larger Thermal Battery) may need to be done to fill in the needs of Low Heating Percentage Energy Use Markets
  • Option C is do both…in stages as the technology+fund base grows

All in all just food for thought, but wanted to document all that.

PS, also from a fire code standpoint, Tanks of Water (Short of Flooding, some Secondary Containment + Cleanup Procedures/Contingencies may be worth considering) are a bit more “intrinsically safe” than Battery systems in terms of things like Battery Fires

At least with Conventional Chemistries, the jump from ~2000mah Phones and the odd Power Tool or so to MASSIVE BEV Batteries / Grid Scale Installations etc (or to a lesser extent E-Scooters etc has been a MASSIVE jump in Emergency Planning / Firefighting Issues.

Will document it later, but as per some officials most SMALL batteries will burn up fast then your main concern is what that started (Like a single match in a trash can is not a White Phosphorus Fire). Massive Batteries, or alternatively MANUFACTURING SETTINGS can turn into massive chain reactions with responses more akin to Metal Fires like Magnesium etc so MAJOR concerns to be addressed. Also regulation lagging such as Charging Stations not needing an Emergency Fuel Pump Shutoff Point by code. If the breaker box is right next to the fire, fire fighters cannot use it complicating responses.

Anywho just rambling a bit, but love the thoughts of this just wanted to add some context/info/ideas i had flowing around, thanks!

--Eric (talk) 02:24, 12 August 2025 (UTC)