Re:Macron says France will build new nuclear energy reactors
by shubb on Wednesday November 10, 2021 @05:38PM
(#29181921)
If you know ahead of time that you are going to use it like this, you can use a purpose built Thermal Store. It's a huge insulated water tank that you heat up, and then you extract heat from it by running mains water through a heat exchanger with the tank water.
Typically used by people with wind, solar, or burned fuel energy supplies to smooth out energy consumption and soak up extra energy when there is too much. Also by people with variable electricity pricing to soak up free excess energy from the grid at night and heat their home for free all day.
Criminy. Of course it isn't. It's a storage device for HOT WATER.
I have an experiment you can try. Unplug your hot water heater. See how long the hot water lasts. (For me, it remains hot enough to shower for TWO DAYS.) That suggests, to ignorant me, that one does not need to heat the water in it at a moment's notice, but it can be deferred to the cheaper times of the day.
Furthermore, water doesn't have to be heated to a precise temperature. The temp of your shower is controlled by mixing it with cold water. Hence, one can heat the water to a much higher temp when electricity is cheap, further extending the "battery" effect of storing hot water.