Article 31775 of alt.solar.thermal: Path: news.misty.com!not-for-mail From: nicksanspam@ece.villanova.edu Newsgroups: alt.solar.thermal Subject: Re: Physics help please - heat storage Date: 22 Feb 2009 09:18:39 -0500 Organization: Villanova University Lines: 21 Message-ID: References: <499dadac$0$89878$815e3792@news.qwest.net> <499e0347$0$48229$815e3792@news.qwest.net> NNTP-Posting-Host: acadia.ece.villanova.edu X-Trace: max.inside.misty.com 1235312320 11054 153.104.44.130 (22 Feb 2009 14:18:40 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@misty.com NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 22 Feb 2009 14:18:40 +0000 (UTC) Xref: news.misty.com alt.solar.thermal:31775 Ecnerwal wrote: >The thing to do with simple water storage is to select sealed containers >with a long lifespan, and not pump the water around - just let it sit >there and have air moved over it. No maintenance, little if any >recurring expense, and one failure mode (leakage of container) which >would lead to a recurring expense (new containers, preferably getting >the "long lifespan" right this time). IIRC, Nick thought that plastic >soda bottles were going to be good (lots of surface area to transfer >heat in and out) but found out after a few years that the thin plastic >gave up after a few years use. In my experience, cloudy plastic milk jugs crack after a while. Clear plastic soda bottles don't creack, but over a year, enough water vapor diffuses through their walls to make them floppy containers. o Lately I lean towards thinwall PVC pipes tucked between basement ceiling joists and shiny high-temp ceiling mass upstairs. Nick