Using Industrial Waste to Invent Heat Batteries
Added 2025-02-20 21:47:38 +0000 UTCNew video! Early release for Patrons. Thanks everyone, hope you enjoy!
Comments
what kind of costs would you be talking about ?
Moopy
2025-07-24 23:48:30 +0000 UTCI was having a conversation today on a science minded Discord channel. Many of us are interested in your PCM experiments and tweaking them to our own needs. One individual was dismayed at the cost of Sodium Lignosulfonate. Its either a scam or you buy in quantities well beyond the DIY needs. I suggested they split the cost with like minded individuals but there are logistic issues there. I hesitate to suggest this because I'd rather you not go commercial but there may be a business opportunity here for you. Or, at least, a way to help citizen scientists follow in your footsteps by providing them a way to buy these chemicals at a DIY scale. Food for thought for you or any of your enterprising supporters.
Brad Hallisey
2025-04-19 02:53:05 +0000 UTCThere are one or two companies selling PCMs for buildings, so theoretically they've solved the issue to a certain extent. I think the strategy of those companies has been dividing the pcm into many small compartments like bubble wrap as opposed to one large heat battery tank. Overall I don't have enough experience using pcms for this type of purpose and I hope to learn more in the future so I can make good practical suggestions.
NightHawkInLight
2025-03-04 23:21:17 +0000 UTCHey, I am observing your work for some time, because I plan to build a self-sufficient home including some kind of seasonal termal energy storage. I was thinking about using sodium sulfate as PCM termal battery, however I also am worried about any long-term issues that may arrise - for a building application I would like to have a solution that would last 25-50 years without any significant maintenance. Regarding the problem with crystallization and separation of the sodium sulfate/water mixture - have you considered how such solution would behave when thermal convection effects are added? If you would build a battery, most likely it would be a huge tank with a heat exchanger on the bottom (e.g. a pipe coil with cold/hot water running through it). When you heat the mixture it would start to increase the temperature on the bottom, then hotter portion of the mixture would migrate up due to convection and colder would sink to the bottom - this effect would effectively mix-up the solution and could provide a uniform distribution of the ingredients. In such case, adding a gelling agent could even make it WORSE, because water would not have enough freedom to move up/down with the temperature gradient. I wonder if one day you could make such experiment, e.g. using some tall glass pipe, a heater on the bottom and the solution dyed with some color to see if convection is present. Love your work!
Tomasz Tajmajer
2025-02-23 11:31:01 +0000 UTCHey Ben! I've always been interested in experimentation, but i've never really had the knowledge or motivation to give it much of a try. I've been watching your videos for years now and once i found that you actually livestream the process, I got super excited. I see that you are going to stop livestreaming the untested chemistry, but i believe watching the whole process, success and failure alike, is the most interesting. I will definitely be tuning in for your streams.
Said Bateh
2025-02-23 01:37:15 +0000 UTC
