![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peristaltorA few years ago, my sister and her hubby took some of their extra cash, bought property and built their dream house, one she designed herself. She also pressed her builder to stop with the head-scratching and provide the house with the most energy-efficient design the house size would allow; they got structural insulated panel construction with a radiant floor fueled with an oil boiler. (The oil boiler was my suggestion. Though they have a proven track record, propane tanks can fail, sometimes spectacularly. Keep that much pressurized flammable gas around and one day, you might spring a leak. Oil tanks can also leak, but since home heating oil (essentially, low-grade diesel fuel) has a high flash point one can drop a lit kitchen match or cigarette into the tank and safely watch it fizzle out. That level of redundancy in safety appealed to her.)
She called the other day with news. Since they have been in the house a few years and have smoothed many of the unforeseen design wrinkles, she felt it was time to start further improving the energy consumption profile. Her builder suggested a Thermomax solar array (like the one The Wife and I are contemplating) backed by an on-demand electric water heater. Why electric? With the crest of Peak Oil probably upon us, electric has become a cost-effective alternative to either oil or gas for home heating. The builder estimated she and her hubby would pay for the oil boiler replacement in 7-10 years.
Me? I had to balk. First of all, that boiler still has a lot of years left in it. Why replace what ain't broke? Why not get the solar and supplement its heat with the existing system? No, I am not in the building trade and therefore do not have this builder's professional exposure to the day-to-day changes in the tech and trade he plies; but I also remember he talked my sister out of installing SIP panels on the roof, the number one place most homes lose their heat. Today, he has converted to what both my sister and I tried to tell him, and preaches the gospel of better roofs through SIP. He was wrong then, and could be wrong today.
There's another reason I think it would be a good idea to hang on to a water tank, be it oil fired or electric, one that occurred to me just today. Though it isn't an issue yet, I think it could be very, very soon. It's a story best fleshed out in this story from the local NPR station:
Further research into what other countries to do divert this excess power -- countries like Denmark and Spain -- reveals the answer is also eluding these countries; it turns out they simply give the power gratis to other neighboring countries when those countries can use the power:
"Fields of batteries?" That got me to thinking. DONG and the BPA both have the same problem; what to do with excess power they can't use at the moment. Some appliances, though, can store energy. . . like electric hot water tanks. In fact, a hot water tank is a kind of thermal battery, charging the stored water with a resistance element or flame. These thermal batteries are already installed in most homes. Why not put their load-grabbing capacity to the job of recovering unexpected wind energy bounties the turbines would have to otherwise shed?
To do this job properly, there must be cooperation between the electric consumers and the power companies. Cooperation directly implies that each of them get something out of this arrangement. Therefore, I think it unreasonable to expect either side to sacrifice. Instead, the solution should prove mutually beneficial. . . and profitable. Let's first wire the solution for the benefit of the power companies.
Most houses have a water tank fed by a cold water supply line:
COLD WATER PIPE -->HOT WATER TANK-->HOT WATER PIPE
For starters, let's install a second water heater in series with this arrangement, just upstream of the existing tank:
CW PIPE -->NEW HW TANK -->OLD HW TANK-->HW PIPE
This new hot water tank has some significant modifications. First of all, its heating elements are not controlled by simple thermostats, but by a remote switch. That switch connects to a communication device, perhaps an internet wi-fi or alpha-numeric pager system, that communicates only with the power company. A read-out is available for the homeowner to monitor its functioning, but otherwise the power company controls the system. On top of this arrangement, the tank's power consumption must be monitored by a meter.
Ordinarily, this tank sits idly, simply intercepting cold water and holding it awhile. Eventually the water flushes downstream to the original tank, the one tasked with actually heating water on a regular basis. When the wind starts to gust, however, that communication device pops on commanding the tank to kick those heating elements right on and absorb the burst of energy the utility has to burn. The communication device responds, letting the folks at the utility which device is now active and how much power the elements are pulling from the system. When the temperature in the tank gets excessive, the elements go cold once again and the comm device reports this.
The utility can use a network of these smart tanks as a reliable and almost instant load to shed excess power from the grid. Furthermore, once that water is warmer, the regular tank will have to work that much less to heat the next shower, laundry or dishwasher load; this pre-heating will very effectively reduce the grid's load in the immediate future, perhaps for days. Should the wind pick up overnight, the morning showers will remain hot without placing the regular burden on the grid, leaving more electrons free to toast bread and brew coffee. This system will prove as effective at storing energy and smoothing the grid's load as any battery/inverter arrangement, but for a fraction of the installation and equipment cost.
What does the consumer get? Remember that the smart hot water tanks are separately metered. Each billing cycle, that meter gets read by the comm device, the consumption info sent to headquarters. Let's say the smart tank charge is one-half the regular power rate; the smart tank's consumption info will be multiplied by .5, and that amount will be subtracted from the bill. This means every time the utility needs to dump some wind farm gust energy, the consumer will pay half as much for the same showers, cooking and washing the family normally does; since heating water is generally the one of the biggest loads in any given household, this could add up fast.
While this 50-gallon-per-household on-demand power dump system might not seem like a big deal, consider what would happen if it caught on, or if people expanded the concept and provided ever larger pools of water to heat for a discount. I've heard many newer skyscrapers use water as the conduit of heating and cooling, keeping the water in basement tanks the size of large swimming pools. Install a massive heating element to this existing tank and one should be able to dump tens of thousands of watts for hours at a time.
Or let's remember my friends Liz and Lyle and their Drake Landing thermal borehole community heating system. This high-tech solar community currently uses gas to supplement the solar heat they store deep underground, but I doubt they would sneer at a windfall of turbine power that would otherwise be wasted.
Right now, "on-demand" has become the current empty buzzword. People talk about installing on-demand this and on-demand that, I think, while seldom first considering the consequences. What indeed would happen if everyone scrapped their perfectly-good tank heaters for a raft of on-demand devices, spending hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- simply to avoid heating water pipes for ten or twenty feet, incurring those dreaded "line losses" and (worse!) having to wait for seconds for the water to heat?!? Here's the first effect: The morning shower and bath loads on the power and gas grids could become crushing, for starters. This might prompt utilities to take drastic conservation measures.
Tanks store heat and thus smooth grid power. They are thermal batteries. It's not something most utility consumers consider when they chase the latest trends. Why not take even fuller advantage of this?
X-Posted to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
home_effinomic.
She called the other day with news. Since they have been in the house a few years and have smoothed many of the unforeseen design wrinkles, she felt it was time to start further improving the energy consumption profile. Her builder suggested a Thermomax solar array (like the one The Wife and I are contemplating) backed by an on-demand electric water heater. Why electric? With the crest of Peak Oil probably upon us, electric has become a cost-effective alternative to either oil or gas for home heating. The builder estimated she and her hubby would pay for the oil boiler replacement in 7-10 years.
Me? I had to balk. First of all, that boiler still has a lot of years left in it. Why replace what ain't broke? Why not get the solar and supplement its heat with the existing system? No, I am not in the building trade and therefore do not have this builder's professional exposure to the day-to-day changes in the tech and trade he plies; but I also remember he talked my sister out of installing SIP panels on the roof, the number one place most homes lose their heat. Today, he has converted to what both my sister and I tried to tell him, and preaches the gospel of better roofs through SIP. He was wrong then, and could be wrong today.
There's another reason I think it would be a good idea to hang on to a water tank, be it oil fired or electric, one that occurred to me just today. Though it isn't an issue yet, I think it could be very, very soon. It's a story best fleshed out in this story from the local NPR station:
WHEN YOU FLIP A LIGHT SWITCH, YOU EXPECT THE ELECTRICITY TO COME ON WITHOUT THINKING. THAT DEPENDABILITY STARTS AT A HIGH SECURITY CONTROL ROOM IN VANCOUVER, WASHINGTON. THERE, ELECTRICITY DISPATCHERS FROM THE BONNEVILLE POWER ADMINISTRATION (B.P.A.) MONITOR THE REGIONAL TRANSMISSION GRID. TWICE THIS SUMMER, THEY'VE BEEN PUT TO THE TEST BY UNEXPECTEDLY LARGE SURGES OF WIND POWER.
MAINZER: "It's something we have to keep our eyes on more and more and more going forward. But I wouldn't want to convey that this was people running around screaming, 'Oh my goodness, the lights are about to go out.'"
ELLIOT MAINZER MANAGES TRANSMISSION SERVICES FOR B.P.A. HE DESCRIBES TENSE MOMENTS WHILE DISPATCHERS SCRAMBLED TO DUMP EXCESS POWER. FOR THE FIRST TIME, WIND FARM OPERATORS IN OUR REGION GOT ORDERS TO IMMEDIATELY FEATHER THEIR BLADES. TONS OF WATER WAS ALSO PURPOSELY SPILLED OVER THE TOPS OF HYDROPOWER DAMS ON THE COLUMBIA RIVER.
NOW IMAGINE RUNNING THE REGIONAL GRID WITH THREE TIMES AS MANY WINDMILLS HOOKED UP. THAT'S HOW MUCH OF THE VARIABLE ENERGY SOURCE IS IN THE QUEUE. (Emphasis mine.)
Further research into what other countries to do divert this excess power -- countries like Denmark and Spain -- reveals the answer is also eluding these countries; it turns out they simply give the power gratis to other neighboring countries when those countries can use the power:
For DONG, Denmark's largest utility, Better Place offers an opportunity to solve one of its biggest problems: the economies of wind power. DONG makes a higher portion of energy from wind -— 18 percent —- than any other power company in the world. Danish politicians want to see that figure doubled, which is good and green but completely impractical: Some days the wind blows, and some days it doesn't. Banking wind energy is expensive and inefficient -— DONG would have to buy fields of batteries. Rather than lose it, the company ends up giving away excess power to Germany and Sweden.
"Fields of batteries?" That got me to thinking. DONG and the BPA both have the same problem; what to do with excess power they can't use at the moment. Some appliances, though, can store energy. . . like electric hot water tanks. In fact, a hot water tank is a kind of thermal battery, charging the stored water with a resistance element or flame. These thermal batteries are already installed in most homes. Why not put their load-grabbing capacity to the job of recovering unexpected wind energy bounties the turbines would have to otherwise shed?
To do this job properly, there must be cooperation between the electric consumers and the power companies. Cooperation directly implies that each of them get something out of this arrangement. Therefore, I think it unreasonable to expect either side to sacrifice. Instead, the solution should prove mutually beneficial. . . and profitable. Let's first wire the solution for the benefit of the power companies.
Most houses have a water tank fed by a cold water supply line:
For starters, let's install a second water heater in series with this arrangement, just upstream of the existing tank:
This new hot water tank has some significant modifications. First of all, its heating elements are not controlled by simple thermostats, but by a remote switch. That switch connects to a communication device, perhaps an internet wi-fi or alpha-numeric pager system, that communicates only with the power company. A read-out is available for the homeowner to monitor its functioning, but otherwise the power company controls the system. On top of this arrangement, the tank's power consumption must be monitored by a meter.
Ordinarily, this tank sits idly, simply intercepting cold water and holding it awhile. Eventually the water flushes downstream to the original tank, the one tasked with actually heating water on a regular basis. When the wind starts to gust, however, that communication device pops on commanding the tank to kick those heating elements right on and absorb the burst of energy the utility has to burn. The communication device responds, letting the folks at the utility which device is now active and how much power the elements are pulling from the system. When the temperature in the tank gets excessive, the elements go cold once again and the comm device reports this.
The utility can use a network of these smart tanks as a reliable and almost instant load to shed excess power from the grid. Furthermore, once that water is warmer, the regular tank will have to work that much less to heat the next shower, laundry or dishwasher load; this pre-heating will very effectively reduce the grid's load in the immediate future, perhaps for days. Should the wind pick up overnight, the morning showers will remain hot without placing the regular burden on the grid, leaving more electrons free to toast bread and brew coffee. This system will prove as effective at storing energy and smoothing the grid's load as any battery/inverter arrangement, but for a fraction of the installation and equipment cost.
What does the consumer get? Remember that the smart hot water tanks are separately metered. Each billing cycle, that meter gets read by the comm device, the consumption info sent to headquarters. Let's say the smart tank charge is one-half the regular power rate; the smart tank's consumption info will be multiplied by .5, and that amount will be subtracted from the bill. This means every time the utility needs to dump some wind farm gust energy, the consumer will pay half as much for the same showers, cooking and washing the family normally does; since heating water is generally the one of the biggest loads in any given household, this could add up fast.
While this 50-gallon-per-household on-demand power dump system might not seem like a big deal, consider what would happen if it caught on, or if people expanded the concept and provided ever larger pools of water to heat for a discount. I've heard many newer skyscrapers use water as the conduit of heating and cooling, keeping the water in basement tanks the size of large swimming pools. Install a massive heating element to this existing tank and one should be able to dump tens of thousands of watts for hours at a time.
Or let's remember my friends Liz and Lyle and their Drake Landing thermal borehole community heating system. This high-tech solar community currently uses gas to supplement the solar heat they store deep underground, but I doubt they would sneer at a windfall of turbine power that would otherwise be wasted.
Right now, "on-demand" has become the current empty buzzword. People talk about installing on-demand this and on-demand that, I think, while seldom first considering the consequences. What indeed would happen if everyone scrapped their perfectly-good tank heaters for a raft of on-demand devices, spending hundreds -- perhaps thousands -- simply to avoid heating water pipes for ten or twenty feet, incurring those dreaded "line losses" and (worse!) having to wait for seconds for the water to heat?!? Here's the first effect: The morning shower and bath loads on the power and gas grids could become crushing, for starters. This might prompt utilities to take drastic conservation measures.
Tanks store heat and thus smooth grid power. They are thermal batteries. It's not something most utility consumers consider when they chase the latest trends. Why not take even fuller advantage of this?
X-Posted to
home_effinomic.