PCM Night Storage Heaters

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martinwinlow

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Hi All,

(PCM = phase change material)

There is a bit of a revolution going on at the moment with respect to the end of the hot water cylinder era and the start of its replacement, the 'heat battery'. Some of you will have heard about this technology already which is being spear-headed by an Edinburgh-based company called Sunamp. A better known (but slightly dodgy, historically, in my opinion) company called Fisher Heat (dodgy because they advertise resistive electric panel heaters as '100% efficient!!' - which of course they are but it misleads people into thinking they are also cost-efficient which they most certainly are *not*) is also selling Sunamp's products under their logo.

In a nutshell, and without going into the very complex technicalities (but similar principle to refrigeration/heat pump technology - and equally as magical) a heat battery will provide hot water for both washing and heating purposes (including underfloor heating) from a much more compact volume (approximately 1/3 to 1/2 the size of a comparable hot water cylinder) has much better thermal retention characteristics (saving money) and is much easier to install, maintain and arguably operate - with the exception that it is quite a lot heavier than an equivalent *empty* cylinder. It is also as good as or better in terms of compatibility with various heat sources (except back boilers and the like).

So, my question is, does anyone know of a company who is yet taking advantage of this technology to make modern night storage heaters? It seems s very obvious use for the PCM technology given that it would result in a much more compact and efficient heater with all the advantages of the original idea of night storage i.e. using night time off-peak electricity to 'charge' it and releasing that energy as heat during the day/evening when it's needed. I'd also like to imagine that they would be 'smart' and WWW-connected and therefore able to take advantage of the weather forecast to only store sufficient heat accordingly, thereby being much more efficient in terms of energy uses as well as insulation losses.

Just a thought!

MW
 
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It is not "new technology"

It was being developed in the 1990's if not before. The materials used then were prone to stratification which reduced the amount of material that could change phase and hence the heat storage capacity reduced.
 
I mentioned on here 6 months or so back that all heating and hot water would be electric going forward. No gas, no oil. I think a few on here thought it was quite an amusing idea, but it is coming down the track and I can't see anything to stop it at the moment. Maybe when the grid runs out of capacity? If anybody can knock up a reasonably priced phase change heater in the shed, now would be a good time. You could make £squillions.
 
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Non heat pump electric heating is madness. The only benefit to night storage heating over a sensible heating system is that they're cheap to buy and fit.

Making them expensive to buy and harder(?) to fit seems like a hard sell.
 
IT Minion said:
Making them expensive to buy and harder(?) to fit seems like a hard sell.
Click to expand...
Additionally, I see the whole concept of 'Night Storage Heaters' as having had their day.
With the take-up of smart meters, the whole supply and demand concept can be treated with far more granularity.
Will there even be an 'off-peak' any more, if we are all charging our electric cars when we get home in the evening?
'Heat batteries' could work well with a dynamic tariff, but would individual heaters?
 
RandomGrinch said:
Additionally, I see the whole concept of 'Night Storage Heaters' as having had their day.
With the take-up of smart meters, the whole supply and demand concept can be treated with far more granularity.
Will there even be an 'off-peak' any more, if we are all charging our electric cars when we get home in the evening?
'Heat batteries' could work well with a dynamic tariff, but would individual heaters?
Click to expand...
There is a modest benefit, if you have solar panels, in being able to store energy from times when a surplus is produced, for later use. It only makes economic sense if the cost of the equipment is less than the cost of energy from your cheapest available source (such as a gas boiler). This means that immersion heater diverters are usually not worth having. Sadly solar power tends to be lowest at times when heating demand is highest.

I got a couple of storage heaters FOC which I thought worth a try.
 
IT Minion said:
Non heat pump electric heating is madness. The only benefit to night storage heating over a sensible heating system is that they're cheap to buy and fit.

Making them expensive to buy and harder(?) to fit seems like a hard sell.
Click to expand...
Heat pumps just do not work in certain properties. I, regretfully, have just had to tell a couple that their only option at present is oil. It goes against my grain but there is no option. The system will be designed in four zones that will each run from a point that will be supplied with a large cable, ready for a future electric boiler. It's hard to see what the situation will be in ten or fifteen years time but electricity is going to have to become cheaper.
 
Installation cost is the problem, my bother-in-law had a house with storage cylinders and solar panels with both solid fuel and LPG all feeding into the system so it was multi-fuel and he could visit his children in Germany and on getting off the plane switch his heating on and the house was toasty warm on his return from the stored energy from solar panels.

Once home a fire in the evening would be enough to reheat the two massive tanks and keep the home warm the next day.

However when he moved he looked into installing it in his new home, an old farm house, and the cost was around £24k, it simply is not a system which lends its self to retro fitting, one problem is for a wood burning fire you do not want to rely on electric, having to rake out a fire if the electric fails is a no no.

So the tanks need to be upstairs so thermo syphon can still work even if no electric, so the floor needs to take the weight. Also access to solar panels, fitted to a flat roof with internal access they are very good, but where you need ladders and scaffold erecting to do maintenance then that's silly, can't even remove the snow in the winter.
 
Solar thermal panels have gone way out of fashion now. A very nifty idea but plumbers and plumbing is expensive compared to simpler electricity.
 
IT Minion said:
Solar thermal panels have gone way out of fashion now. A very nifty idea but plumbers and plumbing is expensive compared to simpler electricity.
Click to expand...
Although it’s not that complicated really

solar thermal is in theory a system you could install yourself provided it’s not a pressurised system
 
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