Brainstorm Idea......... The hot water bottle!

I have been looking at the rocket mass heater and looking at where everyone likes to sit  on the bench where the hot air is collected in thermal mass...

One of the problems I saw was how hard this surface is  to try to lay on.    If you put foam on it, then you insulate the thermal mass so you are not getting the benefit of it when you sit on it.\


I was thinking why not lay about 10 hot water bottles on top of this  filled about 4/5 of the way full and create like a water bed on top of the mass the bottles would transfer and store heat and make the surface much less hard to lay on, then cover with a sheet.....    

Just thinking outloud and was wondering if this had any merit...

I also was thinking about putting  plant heating matts under the hot water bottles and warming them with solar with a heavy quilt over them, for a nice  toasty bed at night....  

Sounds like an interesting idea Mart.
Wonder how you could attach them together so that they don’t shift around.

Gerry Parent wrote:Sounds like an interesting idea Mart.
Wonder how you could attach them together so that they don’t shift around.

I was thinking about that perhaps a rectangular box ...    

There may be a better way.    I don't think they make water beds  that shape may have to look around.

Looking around, I found this...

https://www.industrybuying.com/hospital-beds-duckback-MED.HOS.86536242/

I figured a pillow filled with sand or beans would be ideal, but the water bed is even better!

William Bronson wrote:I figured a pillow filled with sand or beans would be ideal, but the water bed is even better!

I like the bean idea like a bean bag,   that would be easy to sew and make...

I don't think water is going to be a good long term solution.  Water get's funky and eventually, whatever you put it in is going to leak.  However, I rather do like the bean or sand idea as I have been a long term user of the old Japanese Sobikowa pillow.  Which is little more than buckwheat husks in a cotton sack.   The buckwheat husks, in an application such as this, would provide the desired cushion, plus a bit of thermal mass so that the bench isn't entirely insulated from the cushion.

Interesting idea.

BTW.  I intend to be buried with that pillow.

An afterthought, but I thought it worth mentioning.  Those weighted blankets that are all the rage.  Those would make awesome covers for a heated bench.