Hey y'all! This is my first post here on the forum. This isn't technically related to solar power necessarily, but I figure the folks in this community are creative enough to help me out with an idea.
I've been a full-time RV'er for about 5 years now. As any RV'er knows, emptying the waste tanks (grey water and black water) is one of the least-glamorous aspects of living out on the road. Furthermore, I had the realization a few months back that I'm dumping close to 10kWh of heat energy down the drain every time I dump my tanks.
Geothermal heating/cooling is something I only ever thought of in the context of residential/commercial buildings. The whole "geo" part of "geothermal" sort of assumes you are attached to the ground. In an RV, that's not technically the case. But geothermal heating/cooling is simply the act of pumping in constant temperature water from the ground (i.e. 50F) and pumping out variable temperature water (i.e. 35F or 65F, depending on the season) into the ground.
RVs still pump in fresh water. This fresh water contains heat, even though 50F sounds cold. We further heat this water in a hot-water tank. RVs also store waste water. When you take a shower, hot water touches your skin for just a few seconds before it falls down the drain. But there's still a tremendous amount of energy leftover in that water, all of which is wasted the second it goes down the drain. And all of that energy needs to be recuperated by the time you take your next shower or do the dishes.
I'm wondering if it's possible to use grey/black water tanks as the "reject" water of a geothermal system. In the winter, I could use a heat pump to extract heat and cool the tanks down to ~35F before I dump them down the drain. In the summer, I could dump the excess heat from the AC into the waste water and heat the tanks up to ~90F before I dump them down the drain.
This post is already getting long so I'll clip it here. Has anyone heard of someone using RV waste tanks for heat recovery and/or heat exhaust?
I've been a full-time RV'er for about 5 years now. As any RV'er knows, emptying the waste tanks (grey water and black water) is one of the least-glamorous aspects of living out on the road. Furthermore, I had the realization a few months back that I'm dumping close to 10kWh of heat energy down the drain every time I dump my tanks.
Geothermal heating/cooling is something I only ever thought of in the context of residential/commercial buildings. The whole "geo" part of "geothermal" sort of assumes you are attached to the ground. In an RV, that's not technically the case. But geothermal heating/cooling is simply the act of pumping in constant temperature water from the ground (i.e. 50F) and pumping out variable temperature water (i.e. 35F or 65F, depending on the season) into the ground.
RVs still pump in fresh water. This fresh water contains heat, even though 50F sounds cold. We further heat this water in a hot-water tank. RVs also store waste water. When you take a shower, hot water touches your skin for just a few seconds before it falls down the drain. But there's still a tremendous amount of energy leftover in that water, all of which is wasted the second it goes down the drain. And all of that energy needs to be recuperated by the time you take your next shower or do the dishes.
I'm wondering if it's possible to use grey/black water tanks as the "reject" water of a geothermal system. In the winter, I could use a heat pump to extract heat and cool the tanks down to ~35F before I dump them down the drain. In the summer, I could dump the excess heat from the AC into the waste water and heat the tanks up to ~90F before I dump them down the drain.
This post is already getting long so I'll clip it here. Has anyone heard of someone using RV waste tanks for heat recovery and/or heat exhaust?
