My living room gets plenty of sun from big, west facing windows. As the cold weather is approaching, I wanted to make a device that leveraged this exposure to sunlight to store some energy and slowly release it through the night.
The initial idea was to have a solar panel, battery for electrical energy buffer, some sort of aquarium heater, and a water tank.
Water would be heated by the aquarium heater, which would be powered by the solar panel and battery through the night (as long as the battery lasts). This setup would slowly release the water's heat to the living room.
Will this be more efficient than having just a water tank painted black next to the window? The sun would heat it pretty well during the day, and the solar panel+battery+heater might not be much more efficient, if at all.
Best Answer
Any dark colored mass would become a passive solar heater for when the sun goes away and the room begins to cool. The mass could be as simple as concrete blocks, tiles or as costly as eutectic tube solutions. Years ago,I was interested in solar systems (I was years ahead in my imagination and thinking), and these were common ideas that were studied and written about. Before you give your brain an overload go to the local book store or library and read and study books on passive solar ideas. You will be amazed at the ideas people had to gather solar energy and use it at a later time. "Hope this helps".