1. What inspired this project idea?
With as much as half of the USA’s power bring used for home heating we wanted to create a new form of energy storage that can compete with lithium-ion batteries.
2. What are the main goals of the project?
To be able to create a form of energy storage for home heating that can compete with lithium-ion batteries in terms of value, safety, and ease of home implementation.
3. Why is this project idea important or relevant?
As renewable energy sources increase in adoption, energy storage will need to be adopted to account for the intermittency of these power sources.
4. What problem does this project idea aim to solve?
Home energy storage is often difficult to install, prohibitively expensive, and not feasible for tenants. Our thermal sand battery would allow users to affordably store large amounts of thermal energy at the off-peak rates to use later down the line.
5. Who will benefit from this project idea?
This project would benefit the average to low-income consumer by allowing them to install this energy storage system by themselves to save money on their electric bill.
6. How does this project idea differ from existing solutions?
Existing solutions are very capable but very expensive and as a result having very long pay back periods. Lithium battery backup also often need professional installation which can increase the pay back period even more and removes people who rent from the equation.
7. What are the unique features of this project idea?
This project is considerably safer than lithium-ion storage as it doesn’t store energy in the form of a chemical reaction, and it is significantly cheaper/easier to source the materials needed for this kind of storage.
8. What is the potential impact of this project idea?
Being able to have a viable alternative energy storage solution that is affordable and easily accessible for everyone.
9. What challenges might arise with this project idea?
The biggest concern at the moment is the weight of the overall project although we are also experimenting with different forms of sand mixes some of which can have higher specific heats than others which would allow for making a lighter battery.
10. What resources are needed to turn this project idea into reality?
A lot of sand, heating elements, and thermocouple sensors.
11. How will this project idea be sustainable in the long term?
Parts and materials are abundant and easy to source. Because we are using materials that already have robust supply chains production would be a lot simpler.
12. What are the first steps to develop this project idea?
Being able to determine the size of the battery we want to build.
13. How will you measure the success of this project idea?
The measured thermal capacity of the battery as well as its capacity to heat up a room.
14. What is the long-term vision for this project idea?
For other people to be able to have a similar product in their home or even scale up the project to have massive thermal batteries connected to district heating systems.