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Sand battery - thermal mass proto type.

 
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Interesting experiment with sand battery.

 
Mart Hale
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Mart Hale
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Mart Hale
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Looks like this gent found a good way of using thermal mass in concrete to heat their home.

https://medium.com/@upnorthandoffgrid/6-heating-systems-5c5727c1607e

Combining heat pump + masonary heater I do find innovative.

 
Mart Hale
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Use of excess solar to store heat in sand.
 
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Mart Hale
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Testing different types of sand.
 
Mart Hale
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The comparison of graphite verses the sand I found most interesting.
 
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Sand Battery Comments Please!! July 2025

Before I put the blades on my baby windmill!!

Stove Top Element to 400 watt AC wild windmill:
*Cement Paver
*Canning Pot
*Antique mine cart forged wheel in the bottom
*Bricks with air holes
*Old HubCap
*Play Sand
More sand will be added if any heat generated.

I had information that a heating element creates a circuit so no neutral is in this Iteration #1.

#6 copper Wire 1 pc each end connected to a prong makes a kind of half hoop
#10 stranded wire wraps the ends of #6
*Ceramic Insulator pieces for electric wires
 Attached to 2 energy conducting wires from the windmill to keep the connection away from the side of the pot
*Three AC wild energy conducting wires attached to the #6 hoop to send energy to the heating element . see above
*Ground wire from a satDish we had once, attached to the Canning Pot, then goes through wall outside grounding to the soil

I do have refractory insulation
I do have a heat reading gun
I do have a multimeter
I also have some plaster of paris

IMG_20250726_132223.jpg
[Thumbnail for IMG_20250726_132223.jpg]
IMG_20250726_113728.jpg
Old wheel in bottom
Old wheel in bottom
IMG_20250726_132509-2.jpg
[Thumbnail for IMG_20250726_132509-2.jpg]
IMG_20250726_141450-2.jpg
[Thumbnail for IMG_20250726_141450-2.jpg]
 
Mart Hale
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Bever Branson wrote:Sand Battery Comments Please!! July 2025
Stove Top Element to 400 watt AC wild
*Cement Paver
*Canning Pot
*Antique mine cart forged wheel in the bottom
*Bricks with air holes
*Old HubCap
*Play Sand




Hi Bever,

Thanks for sharing your experiments with sand battery.


I have found that the elements will short out if they are placed in the sand,   I find it better to use them as they were designed with a pot over them and the elements not in the sand.      

That said,   thanks for sharing your experiment,  I look forward to see how you intend to use your sand battery.

Cheers.
 
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July 2025 - sand battery stove top element

Are you saying put sand into a pot, then pot on top of the stove element?
Maybe in that scenario the stove element rests on the old hubcap, sand any sand...
 
Mart Hale
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Bever Branson wrote:July 2025 - sand battery stove top element

Are you saying put sand into a pot, then pot on top of the stove element?
Maybe in that scenario the stove element rests on the old hubcap, sand any sand...



Yes,  that is what I am suggesting.    

Mike on youtube has had success putting the coil in bout taking it apart and making a spiral  in the sand...    


https://www.youtube.com/@off-gridsurvivalmike8120/videos

Mike has several experiments going with sand batteries...    Some of them have been running for many months.
 
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July 2025 Sand Battery with stove element:

I was pleased to find I could bend #6 copper wire, so the coil like Mike sounds very very feasible!!!

I will look for his topic

Thank you!
I'm tired of being afraid of electrical wires dernit
 
Mart Hale
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Bever Branson wrote:July 2025 Sand Battery with stove element:

I was pleased to find I could bend #6 copper wire, so the coil like Mike sounds very very feasible!!!

I will look for his topic

Thank you!
I'm tired of being afraid of electrical wires dernit



Yeah,  Mike has done great work, but he is not on permies as I am aware, but look at all his other videos, there is tons there.
 
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2025 Sand Battery with Stove Element

Thank you Mart!!
 
Mart Hale
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It looks like a pretty cool project.  I often wonder how difficult it would be to do a DIY heat exchanger with a primitive boiler either wood or waste oil driven on the outside and utilize a pump with coolant filled lines to move the heat indoors.
 
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Boiler, coolant filled lines heat to house sounds like a great project. Waste oil sounds like a longer boiler heat scenario than trudging out to refill wood fire.

My neighbor has a hot water trough attached to copper coils heating from a little woodstove for occasional soaking tired muscles and pain.  It's set up in an outhouse looking structure outside and makes an interesting rustic addition to the place
 
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https://www.batsand.com

Commercial use of sand as thermal mass.
 
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Sand Battery 2025 AC wild

July 2025. Thanks Mart Hale for the bat sand design link.
BatSand tech is familiar!  I've seen designs for large scale well over 45 KW too.
The fact there are blueprints included bode well for buyers who need credibility at the permits level. I think i sent the BatSand idea to a family member moving to Italy.
 
Mart Hale
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Bever Branson wrote:Sand Battery 2025 AC wild

July 2025. Thanks Mart Hale for the bat sand design link.
BatSand tech is familiar!  I've seen designs for large scale well over 45 KW too.
The fact there are blueprints included bode well for buyers who need credibility at the permits level. I think i sent the BatSand idea to a family member moving to Italy.




Yeah,   I think the next level is instead of resistive heating as they are doing is for them to combine in a heat pump as they do with modern heat pumps that cool the room and use the heat to heat hot water for showers.          I have posted several designs in thhis thread that are commercial I might have posted somebody that has already done that....

Indeed when you have commercial ventures doing this it does prove the tech is moving forward.
 
I agree. Here's the link: http://stoves2.com
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