Thermal battery

[HighDesertHippie]

Setting up a thermal battery for my greenhouse system on the porch. I will be working from the ground up with 8 55 gallon drums to build a bank of heat to be slowly released throughout the night.

My plans are still being drawn but my contact with the barrels says I have to act now, I can get either food grade for 20 a barrel, (wrong color) or jet black barrels that will need to be coated in something like flex seal. The food grade ones will just need a quick splash of black spray paint and they will be good. 12.88 for the 14 ounce flex seal, or 3.96 a 12oz can for just the black paint... Has anybody here got any experience with this type of thermal storage, or an idea how much flex seal I would possibly need to make these water drums not suddenly decide to empty themselves at the worst time..

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Could you somehow get your hands on 1760 1—quart soda bottles?

Edit: 880 2-quart soda bottles.

 

[HighDesertHippie]

Could you somehow get your hands on 1760 1—quart soda bottles?

Oh geez.

I am very intrigued now, but don't those give off gas like forever? I have seen a lot of plastic turn to colorful sand under this beautiful high altitude sunshine

 

[HighDesertHippie]

In fact, our crazy levels of UV gave me this idea. We get so much sunshine it makes our mint plants burn so much you can barely eat them, I do wonder what odd effects it may have on my tobacco if I don't shade it a bit.

 

[GreenDragon]

Coatings can and will fail. Spend the extra $'s and go with the food grade. You'll be glad you did in the long run.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I don't know how this thermal battery is supposed to work, but I've seen walls built out of permanently sealed bottles of water and antifreeze.

 

[HighDesertHippie]

I don't want antifreeze around an area I might run my birds, considering Epsom salt and looking for a good article on what I am describing that isn't a video. It's basically a very large version of what you described but with a much greater water mass stored in steel barrels, the steel should help with thermal transfer.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Is there actually risk of freezing 4000lbs of water in Nevada?

 

[HighDesertHippie]

To be honest I am not sure. It never stays below 30 for more than 8 hours or so. Our duck pond only ever gets fine sheets

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Not to say you should or shouldn't do anything a certain way, but there's also the option of setting it up as having a set of radiators. One in the sun which heats up water and fills a single, large, heavily insulated tank during the day, and another in the greenhouse where the heated water flows at night. A solar panel to supply energy to a battery which runs the two water pumps.

 

[HighDesertHippie]

And now I have an odd mix of pesticide and food grade lubricant barrels to clean out and spray paint black

 

[deluxestogie]

pesticide ... barrels

Are those the kind that say, "Not for re-use"?

Bob

 

[HighDesertHippie]

Are those the kind that say, "Not for re-use"?

Bob

Nope, they are coated steel with a food grade liner. Got them from an interesting older gentleman out in wadsworth .

The one that didn't have food grade lubricant in it says it contained something called "odorant" for a pesticide company.

I can only assume it isn't some sort of nerve agent or toxic herbicide laden product, but what is "pesticide odorant?"

 

[HighDesertHippie]

I will snap a pic of the green barrel come daylight, the blacks and blues seem to contain something like ultra thin vegetable oil.....I don't want it near my garden until I wash it out somehow

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

I remember there was a tsp volumed leak of odorant from a diesel plant, and you could smell it 5 miles away.