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by quickthrower2 2250 days ago
It might solve some of the solar demand problem. Heat water up during the day when the sun is out, and then store that in an insulated tank.

Have both bath water and central heating run off that.
2 comments
ants_a 2250 days ago
Makes sense for hot water, but with central heating less so. The energy is mostly needed during the months when there is not a lot of sun, over-sizing the solar collector is financially untenable, as is large enough insulated storage to cover months of heating.
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JshWright 2250 days ago
That's already a thing, they just skip the intermediate steps and run the water through black pipes in a sunny spot.
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quickthrower2 2250 days ago
Black pipes are great, it would make some interesting calculations to compare:

Pipes vs. PV taking heat pump characteristics into account, whose efficiency depends on climate. Installation costs, maintenance costs. The Pipes compete for real estate space against the PV, so if pipes are more efficient, does it off set the lost electricity (that would be more expensive, but cheaper than from the grid, but only when it's sunny and you can use the appliances at that time, unless you have a battery which is more capex, so does the interest/repayments on that cost get offset by using electric 24/7). Etc. Etc.

It might need some ML to figure out the best solution. And by ML I mean linear regression.

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