วีดีโอ

Other ways to store heat, WITHOUT insulation is by chemical reaction and are very promising. The most cheap and non toxic ways are calcium chloride (dehumidification salt) or "13x Molecular sieve" zeolite clay, by dehydratation-Rehydratation, or Sodium Acetate (used as heat pads, and as preservative in food industry). You can store heat when it is sunny, store it like wood in a non insulated storage, then when you need to cook, or to heat by grey days, just reactivate it !

Maybe try some of this instead of wire: High Strength Carbon Fiber Graphite Rope High Temperature Heat Resistant Carbon Fiber Rope Conductive Supplies 2-6mm(4mm Diameter)

most anticipated video upload of the month! good to see your work progressing nicely. and still rocking the celsius!

Greetings from the great white north Mike. I have experience with thermal mass storage. I have a 2000 gallon tank full of sand buried in 6 feet of clay, 6 ft underground.With a perimeter and sloped roof on 4 inch insulation over top of it to keep the moisture and ground frost away. I stole the idea from Polar Night Energy, and buried it. The only things above ground are the heating elements and blower that moves the air through the system, and the heat exchanger for the home systems. Which are inside the shed I built on top of the tank. Im completely off-grid in Saskatchewan. And I have very large 26kw solar array. It still cost me less than it would have to bring power into this site. Every time my batteries are full? Im dumping 4-8kw of energy worth of hot air into that tank an hour. The Tank (and most of the clay around it) is 575C right now. By the middle of March when the days get long enough for me to be pumping more energy into it? It will be around 200C. I use it for my hydronic in-floor home heating and it supplies an endless amount of hot water year round. The Solar system is so large because I wanted to ensure that even on cloudy days the 10-12kwh we used over night is back in the 30kwh batteries as soon as possible, and Im making heat all year long. Retired power engineer btw. Spent nearly 30 years working with commercial steam and refrigeration applications. It wasn't hard to justify the extra $10k worth of solar. The only other ways of heating this place would have cost $2000-$3500 a winter.

The problem I see is the heat loss rate as it may be balanced at 70 f but never reach optimum at 32 F so you need a collective chamber to catch the heat and release it at a rate which keeps it balanced. Just thinking out loud here Mike you are far ahead of me.

I have to say I watch your videos with great anticipation. I do have to comment though your goals like mine are scheduled by the calendar and climate. I am going to ask some questions in order 1 through whatever ending number. 1.0 you are a free thinker, handy as all get out. Very creative in your projects and how to recycle products, one would never think of. WHY DID YOU START THIS PROJECT? 2.0 If we go back to number 1.0, I think you wanted to be warm in Arizona at night, correct? 3.0 I understand the need for cooking in remote areas without utilities wired or piped in. However a campfire and couple grates would solve a lot of those problems. Cook for a week and keep things cool in a small cooler for extended time in a 12v cooler needs one solar panel, maybe two? One problem solved next? 4.0 You are so much like me, It is so easy to get scattered and try to take on more than immediate goals. Mike I mean no disrespect, you need to focus on what is important. Number one I think heat for the winter!!!! Screw the oven, screw the water heater, Stick with the heat, or one plan. Add more power you are on the low edge of what your area could produce with bigger panels. Do a search of used panels, many were leased 5 years ago, efficiency increased so fast those were replaced with newer and better panels. I have purchased a total of 40 panels for less than 70 per with output 30.2 VDC 6.8 amp original purchaser warrantee 30 years. I do not meant to run you down your math is good. Your ideas good just to many, slow it down one step at a time. Like me or hate me, I am just me!

You are lucky to get all that sun starting this week I will be lucky to get 3 days of sunshine a week.

That sure is a good rule of thumb to keep in mind, 5 watts per pound. What do you think 4 watts per pound or 6 watts per pound would be ideal for?

Yeah ..seems to me a hybrid solar/ wood design would get you there..sun during day then fire at nite to maintain heat while using it. You gonna need a ton of solar to be able to harvest heat for more than an hour or so maybe?

Cool find on those panels, perfect voltage for 120v or 240v. You should look into an inline dc breaker for the wiring. 240v dc may arch flash when the panels are connected using those mc4 connectors. I’ve had a few of those burn out as have others. 15 or 20 amp fuses?

Keep it going Mike, that's the way!

Hi Mike! Love your project and your videos keep up the good fight! I'm wondering if something's wrong. When I do the engineering calcs of wattage required seems like you should be getting more temperature gain even with the original 55 gallons of sand. Are you sure you're the heating elements are working optimally and have you measured your actual watt hour input or are you going by stated pannel/array labels? Also I realize my calcs take no account for the wind sucking heat off the drum which is probably substantial. Further i did not account for inefficeincy of the elements but still I would expect 2-3 times what you showed.

What is the reason you are not adding in extra power from a wind generator? t least, it would keep the temperature up overnight.

Armchair sandbattery enthusiast here... Too bad you had to cut it smaller but I'm impressed with how quick you implement design changes. I think I understand that you made it smaller in order to get the sand to a higher temperature, what are your thoughts on wrapping the barrel with thermal insulation? My neighbor moved and they left me an old rusty oil drum, I'm inspired by your work and hopefully will be able to cobble together something similar.

I was more excited for then then the election results. Glad yr still on the Celsius. :) Hurray for sanity!

Great job! Keep up the good work

Too bad you don't have more solar panels.

Ty!

Thanks for making these videos, I've watched the others as well. I have a few questions as it will relate to my potential build. 1: why not use a thicker ga wire with the insulation stripped off for inside the sand battery? Due to copper melting at about 2k this will get more power to your elements? 2: Would compressing or tamping the sand down make it more efficient? 3: what is the maximum amount of heat output you are expecting to output from this (from the outside)? Thanks and keep the vids coming. Great stuff

Protect from hail? They must be at a good price for a reason. Slip down mesh covers on rollers?

If the sand battery is great why are the nights in the desert cold?

How about a parabolic reflector to add to the mix.

yeahhhh finaly!!!

The medieval torture device is complete!

Marvellous simply Marvellous we have heat lol

Nicely done! Great to see these DIY projects, so inspiring! If you got a clamp meter, you could take a current measurement, so we can estimate the actual power. (I know you won't be able to measure the voltage while it's running, with those connectors nicely sealed up. That would be ideal. But it's dangerous anyway, if you're not familiar with it.)

❤I am in full,,(at)tension,,😮

Sand battery has so much potential. Just imagine an ibc full of sand and insulation.

"Do not breath the silica" .... Yeah, breath through your nose ;D hahaha dude

Thanks for posting. Years ago I heard of a house that was heated with an insulated 10’ cube that was heated with water. Interested seeing your element. I have a lot of systems in place to utilize sand battery tech. Please continue to share your progress.

Im envisioning utilizing the earth as your storage and aluminum metal fins coming out of the ground and the heat syncs. No clue what issue that'd arise though. That'd barrel would be nice in a home.

Hi Mike, I use glass and tile drill bits for drilling terracotta etc, they actually have a point which makes it real easy for starting the drilling process. If you do a search on the internet for glass and tile drill bits they should pop up. Great VLOG again 👍

And you are using the good sand this time

So except for the builder, there's no moving parts. It just sits there. Maybe put a roof over it. Thanks for showing this project.

That gentleman has stopped drilling in the Mojave Desert as far as I know. There is another company in Pahrump Nevada called Great Basin Well Drilling Co. They are more expensive but they do a great job.

Nice work there

What were you cooking btw? Much appreciation from an innovator in Pakistan!

You must have been a cook at some time in the past.

Same way, but I got 300 projects all stalled out at various stages of procrastination, from ‘idea in design phase’ to ‘collecting a pile of components to assemble at a future unknown date’ to ‘half started, waiting for enthusiasm’ to ‘resting on the healing bench until inspiration strikes’.

you could have used the the fiberglass as template and mark the tile with an edding3000 marker

I am very doubtful that "mica plate" will be a problem, considering the resistance wire is wrapped around it. Unless perhaps you are going to drive it hotter than "bright glowing red". But, you do introduce a novel idea for what to do with my old sort of crappy toasters.

What is the wire your using?

toaster elements are wrapped around mica

Nice use of materials: Thanks. BTW: If you put a lid on your little "saucepan" the water will boil a whole lot faster. Good luck!

Now that’s clever!

Who provides your internet

Great job. Wonder how it would do on Whidbey Island just north of Seattle. Pretty gloomy up here.

Now that is some kind of inspiration there. Thank you again for sharing it.

There is this guy out west that heats his whole house with 24 volts and has various runs of wire buried in concrete and then he invented a BMS that switches depending on the resistance he needs. Electrodacus I believe he is called. Very cool system he has and you are catching up to him. Cheers Mike

I had a typo and some issues with the upload but I went ahead and loaded the video anyway.