Thermal System TA
Stoves
I've loved this idea for a long time; the stoves take in air from the outside, preheat it by running it underground, then send it in for combustion. Coming out, it goes through a masonry heater design where the air is forced to twist and turn around bricks to hold the heat.
The chimney extends several feet above the roof and is metal painted black. In the summer this creates a passive updraft using the same mechanism to suck in cool air, chilling the masonry.
Water
This will be the primary means of thermal stability. I'll need to do some calculations to size all the components.
Externally, I can use solar collectors to heat water during the day during cold weather. I can use radiators to dump heat at night. It may be possible for one device to do both.
Internally I can use radiators as a heat exchange. I like the idea of these being copper and wood.
Automation can drive both. Internally I can turn radiators on and off to help balance the temperature. Externally, devices will be used when they will be effective. With some weather forecasting, we can set goals, for instance trying to raise the temperature of the water and the internal temperature higher than usual if cold weather is expected.
Freeze Room
This needs further research, but the initial math looks good. If I were to build a smallish room (12'x12'x10') with very good insulation (~R25) and store a lot of water I could pump cold air in during the winter and get everything to freeze. Then in the summer I could pump cold air out of the space to cool the house.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_of_specific_heat_capacities
It takes 334J/g for water to go from solid to liquid.
Assume I can get an R-value of around 10. R is m2K/W
Need
- Estimated area of house
- hours per year where the temperature is >74°
55gallons weighs 1666kg. If the house is 1500sqft, that would be a floor plan of about 15'x100'x10', a cube with faces of 2x(1500+150+1000) or a total or 492sq m.
Secondary
The main thermal storage should be kept right around freezing all year long. But since most of the energy will go into keeping the house cool this can be inefficient.
Many days will be warmer than we want during the day but cooler at night. Using something like Sodium sulfate I should be able to store enough energy at night to mostly cool the house during the day.
Desiccant AC
From
3 part system (a cycle so numbers are just convenience). First part takes internal air and passes it over cool liquid desiccant both drying and cooling the air. The desiccant is then heated (using solar) and goes through an exchange with external air causing it to lose some of the water. It is then cooled back to ambient and goes through a heat exchange with air passed through a swamp cooler to drop below ambient returning to the original state of being cold and dry. Not in the videos, but I would add; a head exchange between the desiccant from stage 1 and stage 2. After stage 1 the desiccant will be at or below ambient and we want it warm. Where after stage 2 it will still be quite hot and the next two steps are intended to cool it off. Meanwhile, the system will be largely limited by how much heat the solar heater can provide. So holding on to that energy seems valuable.