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Battery alternative to storage heaters

  • 26-01-2020 12:43pm
    #1
    Ben D Bus
    Registered Users Posts: 2,110 ✭✭✭


    Just a thought that popped into my head recently while watching a YouTube video on the Tesla powerwall.

    My apartment is heated exclusively by electricity, primarily by storage heaters.

    I found myself wondering about the economics of replacing storage heaters with regular electric heaters but powered from a battery which charges on night rate electricity.

    Given the lack of controllability of storage heaters, losses during times when I'm not home etc., there would be some advantages to batteries. They can hold their energy better than a hot brick, have electronic timers and thermostats and so on.

    As I'm not aware of any such products I guess the economics aren't there but does anyone have an estimate of how close (or far) batteries are from competing with storage heaters?

    Also how would the energy density compare? Would a battery with equivalent capacity of a storage heater be the size of my living room?

    As you can see I've done none of the math on this!


Comments

  • #2
    ercork
    Registered Users Posts: 177 ✭✭ercork


    Ben D Bus wrote: »
    Just a thought that popped into my head recently while watching a YouTube video on the Tesla powerwall.

    My apartment is heated exclusively by electricity, primarily by storage heaters.

    I found myself wondering about the economics of replacing storage heaters with regular electric heaters but powered from a battery which charges on night rate electricity.

    Given the lack of controllability of storage heaters, losses during times when I'm not home etc., there would be some advantages to batteries. They can hold their energy better than a hot brick, have electronic timers and thermostats and so on.

    As I'm not aware of any such products I guess the economics aren't there but does anyone have an estimate of how close (or far) batteries are from competing with storage heaters?

    Also how would the energy density compare? Would a battery with equivalent capacity of a storage heater be the size of my living room?

    As you can see I've done none of the math on this!

    Looks like somebody has been thinking along the same lines as you:

    https://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/plug-and-play-radiator-doubles-home-energy-storage-solution-lower-electric-bills.html


  • #3
    Ben D Bus
    Registered Users Posts: 2,110 ✭✭✭Ben D Bus


    ercork wrote: »
    Looks like somebody has been thinking along the same lines as you:

    https://www.treehugger.com/clean-technology/plug-and-play-radiator-doubles-home-energy-storage-solution-lower-electric-bills.html

    Thanks for that. Interesting. The article is 3 years old and they haven't taken over the world yet so I'm guessing the economics still aren't there.


  • #4
    Markcheese
    Registered Users Posts: 8,427 ✭✭✭Markcheese


    I suppose the first thing to find out is how much juice one of you current storage heaters takes in on a normal off peak cycle, then compare that to an equivalent battery or power wall ...
    Are your storage heaters any good , or do you feel that the house is being heated when you don't want it to be ..?

    Slava ukraini 🇺🇦



  • #5
    Ben D Bus
    Registered Users Posts: 2,110 ✭✭✭Ben D Bus


    Markcheese wrote: »
    I suppose the first thing to find out is how much juice one of you current storage heaters takes in on a normal off peak cycle, then compare that to an equivalent battery or power wall ...
    Are your storage heaters any good , or do you feel that the house is being heated when you don't want it to be ..?

    Definitely wasting energy heating the place when I'm out. Also, if the weather warms up quickly, the storage heaters don't care and keep chucking out the same heat as if it was sub zero outside. Or if there is a sudden cold snap, I need to boost the storage heat with peak rate electric heating.

    I could possibly set and manage the storage heaters better but the basic operation will still be very wasteful.


  • #6
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,657 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    Storage heaters should all be smart devices these days.

    Linked to your calendar and the weather forecast.

    Including things like how warm your house gets from cooking or water heating or sunlight. ie. there's a thermostat somewhere checking how warm the rooms normally are.


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