Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryland
How about filling your heat storage tank with something like paraffin wax instead of water then having a closed coil of tubing in the wax, as I understand it paraffin wax holds a lot more heat in the phase change of going from a solid to a liquid and the temps that you are looking at seem about right for wax heat storage.
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That crossed my mind when I saw the subject line. Wax is generally lighter than water, but I don't think the weight savings would be significant. The big benefit here though would be getting that heat of fusion for some serious capacity. I don't know how that would compare with the mass of water you're carrying.
I am rapidly getting beyond my knowledge here, and if I try to dig too deeply into the subject, I will embarrass myself and annoy you with my ignorance.
I think VW did a concept of this some years back, but I think they used something called Glauber's salt.
The energy stored is comparable but the wax's performance envelope is at a higher temperature. Glauber's salt does its thing about 32 deg. C. If you wanted to give up more space and tote around more weight, you could have a two-stage system that quickly brought your engine up to near operating temperature.