System for perennial intelligent alternative energy magnification and storage

Abstract

We teach a novel, system that shaves off peak energy demands by efficiency that effectively magnifies an energy supply capped by capacity of alternative sources, such as solar, wind, saved energy, and the fixed grid or other supplies, to meet the peak needs using a controlled energy storage and conversion system comprising the options of water of fluid heating subsystem; cool, moisturized air circulation system for an evaporation-cooled, hybrid air conditioning subsystem; fireplace / furnace heat saving subsystem; full Carnot energy bifurcation use subsystem, reusing or saving any thrown reservoir heat, or in thermal or converted form; starting with a controller system for magnified, energy storage and management in a smart building, the magnification comprising one or more of Quasi-static water / fluid heating, for non-quasi-static heaters capable of generating intense steam / vapour, for steam / vapour minimizing heat storage; use of energy in its entirety including both energy branches of the Carnot energy bifurcation; quasi-static humidity and temperature control on the cold reservoir side of a hybrid air conditioning system for bettering the Carnot efficiency or performance limit.

Description

[0001] SYSTEM FOR PERENNIAL INTELLIGENT ALTERNATIVE ENERGY MAGNIFICATION AND STORAGE

[0002] Field of the Invention:

[0003] The field of the invention is about energy conversion and storage, efficiently, resulting in a magnification effect, and in particular, the optimized management thereof.

[0004] Background of the Invention:

[0005] Energy is the single biggest component of all economic activity, the world gross domestic product (GDP). It pervades all human actions, labourious, or mechanized. The quest for ever increasing energy supply has therefore underpinned human endeavour for the longest time. Energy obeys and works under the Law of Conservation of Energy, which states that energy can neither be created nor destroyed. It can be converted from one form to another, but otherwise is always around. This surprisingly simple statement is itself the key to realizing infinite energy, if due focus is given to its meaning - it is always around, even if in finite quantity, it is always around. The only effect that has to be realized is to chase the energy around, as it converts from one form to another and keep using it for as long as needed. One does not need to obtain infinite energy to obtain this infinite effect. Nuclear fusion need not be the only path to large amounts of energy - a large need can be realized by over and over reuse of limited energy.

[0006] Another Law of Science then comes into play, Entropy, that a system only progresses spontaneously from order to disorder, from order to chaos, entropy being a measure of chaos that progresses only in a monotonically increasing direction. This Law, arising from the second Law of Thermodynamics, makes the reuse of energy, over and over, difficult, as the ordered form of the initial energy, say a liter of petroleum, or a kilowatt hour of electricity, fractures into multiple, disparate, distributed forms, as a part of spontaneous progress. Spontaneity is irreversibility. A reversible process on the other hand preserves entropy - the process is bidirectional, can switch direction any time, and hence does not increase entropy in any particular direction, the reversing then becoming impossible as an entropy decreasing direction. A reversible process, preserving order, is typically a very slow process, labelled quasi-static, the slowness ensuring that chaos does not slip in as progress is made. One way to try to magnify limited energy, by using it repeatedly, through reuse, then is to rely more on reversibility and quasi static progress for the human / economic works, till the need for the energy runs out.

[0007] Equivalent statements of the Second Law of Thermodynamics are as follows: Kelvin-Planck Statement No process is possible whose sole result is the absorption of heat from a reservoir and the complete conversion of the heat into work.

[0008] Clausius Statement No process is possible whose sole result is the transfer of heat from a colder object to a hotter object.

[0009] This second law then limits the efficiency of a heat engine, that converts heat into mechanical power (work), for example in a car, to the Camot limit, given as: r| = 1 - T2 / T1, which is a shockingly low limit, as for example illustrated by the largely separated temperatures at the ends of liquid water form, 0 Celsius (ice) and 100 Celsius (vapour), computed in Kelvin, as 1 - (273 + 0) / (273 + 100) = 27%. The Camot limit has held the inventor here in shock and awe ever since he first learned about it in the early 1980s as a budding engineering student. The sanctity of a scientific impossibility, preempts engineers from attempting more ambitious use of energy, that then traps economic activity into inefficient forms costing the environment and economy phenomenally, becoming one large factor for climate degeneration and change. Heat engines, e.g. the venerable steam engine of Watts, and its reverse, namely refrigeration, run the world economy, e.g. the thermal power generation plants. Clearly, the Camot limit has to be transcended for the world to work better.

[0010] The key to transcending Carnot is to look carefully at the statements of the second law of thermodynamics and the notion itself of a Carnot “efficiency”. A heat engine, and similarly its reverse, the refrigerator, is a bifurcator of energy. A part of the input energy Qi, at temperature Ti, goes into the work output by the heat engine and the rest goes into a reservoir, Q2, at temperature T2. If an attempt at chasing energy, as it changes forms, reusing it everywhere, over and over has to be made, clearly, both branches of the bifurcation have to be chased. Chasing only one of the two branches, the mechanical power output, and wasting the second, Q2 at T2, and then calling it (a limiting) efficiency (the actual practice being only worse), clearly sets the wrong agenda.

[0011] Heat taken for conversion into work, must bifurcate, with only a proper subset becoming available as work - a statement like this of the Second Law makes the bifurcation explicit, making it incumbent to define efficiency in terms of the whole, as opposed to an (incomplete, proper subset) part.

[0012] With an agenda, set as above, this disclosure now revisits energy management and conversion as it is carried out today, primarily to and from heat forms, since they are the most energy intense, and improves them in the disclosed ways by chasing the entirety of the input energy as it changes forms.

[0013] Environmental effect of water heating worldwide is very high. Hot water is used in cold climates and seasons for human purposes as well as in heating buildings by circulation, besides oil. The subject is also pertinent to industrial use of hot water / oil, it suffices to say that handling and minimizing energy loss for this subject is of critical commercial and environmental impact. In this disclosure, we present a hot water / fluid energy storage system, into which alternate forms of energy are converted and stored. The system magnifies the stored energy by maximizing quasi-static mechanisms of conversion, yielding more stored energy per joule of the alternate energy consumed.

[0014] Another industry we apply our entirety-chasing, energy storage and magnification mechanism to is the air conditioning industry. Air conditioning, as it is carried out today, uses the Carnot cycle, wasting the heat supplied to the hot reservoir at temperature Ti in cooling the lower temperature reservoir at temperature T2 by the use of large fans in outdoor units that pollute the environment by the fan noise, as well as by throwing away all heat. We present two mechanisms of energy chase one directed to the outdoor unit and the second directed to the indoor unit, the two being capable of use separately or simultaneously for magnified energy effect.

[0015] With climate control in buildings covered, namely air-conditioned cooling, and fluidcirculating heating, the system we present is a perennial use system, that also supplies hot water in taps all year around. This covers the heat conversion uses in most buildings. An artificially intelligent controller runs the entire mechanism. The system is particularly well suited to the use of alternate energy sources, such as solar and wind, because it can handle energy fluctuations with ease, allowing it to leverage these cheap / free supplies of intermittent nature, storing the energy whenever in excess, for using later, when in short supply, or for splurging it away, in user-decided luxury. Further, we present a new source of alternate energy, well integrated with our system, for leveraging the waste heat of fireplaces, the hot air in the chimneys for storage and use in our system. Another example is a furnace, used similarly.

[0016] The controller in our system works on all these features in an integrated manner. Additional powers of the controller are disclosed, for better breathing, lower energy buildings, and also natural lighting. All these serve to magnify the energy efficiency, the heating / cooling ones the most. The sizing of the building’s energy supply, the alternate energy in particular, is disclosed for the perennial use of the building, flattening demand highs and lows into a relatively flat supply curve that can provide the maximum economic advantage of alternate energy, without running into rarely used, over capacity or perennial scarcity of energy. With a fixed grid supply meter, the total energy consumed by a building is a capped constant, so a flattened consumption curve helps plan the building better, with matched supply and consumption curves.

[0017] The principles of Science and Engineering we disclose here go far beyond the specific system disclosed here as per the claims later. We cannot hope to cover the vast scale of application in one patent disclosure. But we can point to ramifications that must be looked at for building an environment friendly, human friendly / luxurious, economically scalable world:

[0018] • Bypass the energy bifurcation in Carnot, whenever possible. For example, a hydroelectric power plant converts mechanical energy to mechanical energy enroute to electricity generation. Water at a height representing potential energy converts to kinetic energy of turbines, no Carnot cycle involved.

[0019] • The Earth runs primarily on the largesse of the Sun, e.g. winds, warmth, food (photosynthesis). This munificence by itself does not involve Carnot, though humans do get around to it by burning the fuels it has created, petroleum, gasohol, etc. Alternatives are photovoltaic s, although the efficiency of the system still has a long way to go, or the Carnot-less solar byproducts mentioned above as hydroelectric plants.

[0020] • When Carnot is the only way to go, then chase the bifurcation fully, whatever be the industry.

[0021] Summary of the Invention:

[0022] Accordingly, the present invention provides a system that shaves off peak energy demands by efficiency that effectively magnifies an energy supply capped by capacity of alternative sources, such as solar, wind, saved energy, and the fixed grid or other supplies, to meet the peak needs using a controlled energy storage and conversion system comprising the options of:

[0023] 1. Water of fluid heating subsystem

[0024] 2. Cool, moisturized air circulation system for an evaporation-cooled, hybrid air conditioning subsystem

[0025] 3. Fireplace / fumace heat saving subsystem 4. Full Carnot energy bifurcation use subsystem, reusing or saving any thrown reservoir heat, or in thermal or converted form

[0026] The specific novel apparatus, arrangement, and functioning that realize the above benefits is detailed in the claims section below.

[0027] Brief Description of the Accompanying Drawings:

[0028] These and other features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood when the following detailed description is read with reference to the accompanying drawings in which like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, wherein:

[0029] Figure 1. is a schematic diagram of our system, comprising a controller and optional energy conversion or storage subsystem components, shown within dotted rectangular shapes;

[0030] Figure 2 is a schematic diagram, elaborating a fireplace / furnace heat saving option

[0031] Figure 3 is an exemplar deployment site that may be viewed optionally, depicting a recently developed, unpressurized water heating system that may be used by our teaching for energy storage using heat transfers;

[0032] Figure 4 is an exemplar deployment site that may be viewed optionally, depicting the earlier pressurized water heating system that was used at the site that may be used by our teaching also, for energy storage;

[0033] Figure 5 is an exemplar deployment site that may be viewed optionally, depicting air coolers for humidifying and cooling air that may be used by our teaching also, for energy storage;

[0034] Figure 6 shows a schedule according to which the controller choreographs system operation by turning some exemplar elements ON or OFF, asynchronously, concurrently along the timeline shown at the bottom; and

[0035] Figure 7 shows the flowchart of controller intelligence

[0036] Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the drawings are illustrated for simplicity and may not have been necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the drawings may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of aspects of the present invention. Furthermore, the one or more elements may have been represented in the drawings by conventional symbols, and the drawings may show only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention so as not to obscure the drawings with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having benefit of the description herein.

[0037] Detailed Description of the Invention:

[0038] It should be noted that the steps of a method may be providing only those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the embodiments of the present invention and so as not to obscure the disclosure with details that will be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having benefit of the description herein.

[0039] All methods described herein can be performed in any suitable order unless otherwise indicated herein or otherwise clearly contradicted by context. The use of any and all examples, or exemplary language (e.g. “such as”) provided with respect to certain embodiments herein is intended merely to better illuminate the invention and does not pose a limitation on the scope of the invention.

[0040] It should be apparent to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. Moreover, in interpreting the specification, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a nonexclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced. Where the specification refers to at least one of something selected from the group consisting of A, B, C .... and N, the text should be interpreted as requiring only one element from the group, not A plus N, or B plus N, etc.

[0041] Quasi-static processes are used to drive discussions of the ideal in Thermodynamics. Heating is a thermodynamic process, but its practice deviates substantially from this ideal. As can be seen from the simple process of heating a pot of water slowly on a stove, versus vigorous heating, the quantity of steam differs. Solar heating comes close to a quasi-static process, as it is slow and does not acquire very high temperatures. There is almost no steaming in this process. Steam is a byproduct of heating. It causes significant difficulty, as the steam collects upwards and heats the roof of the tank, with intense latent heat of vaporization, causing a focused loss area for heat. It is also highly corrosive, given its intense heat. It is best to design a cool heating system, that stays within the low 2 / 3 of the 0-100 Celsius range. While vapour pressure increases exponentially, this intense growth to a pressure of 1 atmosphere at 100 Celsius gets confined to 1 / 7* Atmosphere or so in the lower 2 / 3 range. This comes to about 1.5 m of water head, which is a minor pressure range, that can be worked upon as a closed system in both pressurized hot water systems, and unpressurized hot water systems, see Figures 4 and 3 respectively.

[0042] An unpressurized hot water tank is isobaric; a pressurized hot water tank is isochoric, with pressure release valves that become isobaric upon overheating or worse, system burnout. Regardless, within the safe range of these systems, heating quasi-statically contains heat loss to the very minimum besides extending system life.

[0043] Hot water requirements are generally cyclic on a daily basis. The schedule of most people repeats in such a cycle and planned heating can be carried out. Sometimes, a demand for rapid heating is placed. But generally not, and an intelligent system can plan its heating on the typical pattern using quasi-static heating. Even with rapid heating, at any time, the system has heating sources to deploy as quasi-statically as feasible, for the immediate schedule at hand. The problem may be defined as the scheduling problem of burners, the power at which they are used, with temperature sensors deployed optionally, to track status and meet schedule, besides also tracking the extent of heat loss and preferably keeping it low.

[0044] We design to Figure 3 in particular, with its apriori advantages comprising:

[0045] 1. No system burnout - isobaric heating, safe pressure release

[0046] 2. Uniform water temperature, including peak, within the 2 / 3 range, ensuring low vapour pressure / steam

[0047] 3. Variable water capacity, from almost empty to completely tank full, burners being able to run efficiently and safely from submerged to dry.

[0048] The problem thus is solved in a more general scope here, the water quantity being an additional variable than only the full tank option allowed in pressurized alone water heating systems, e.g. Figure 4.

[0049] Newton’s Faw of Cooling states that the heat transfer by radiation from a hot body at temperature Th to the surroundings at temperature Tcis given by: dQ / dt = K(Th -Tc), where t, in lower case, is time. With heat capacity C, dQ = -Cd(Th -Tc), reducing the equation to:

[0050] -Cd(Th-Tc) / dt = K(Th-Tc)

[0051] =^> d(Th-Tc) / (Th -Tc) = (-K / C) dt

[0052] =^> ln(Th -Tc) = (-K / C)t + A, where A is the constant of integration or Th -Tc = Ae(-K / C)t

[0053] The body thus cools in an exponentially decaying process, the cooling slowing down tremendously, as the body approaches the temperature of the surroundings.

[0054] For heat transfer through a conductor rod, the equation is: dQ / dt = K'(a / l)(Th -Tc), where a is the cross section area of the conductor rod, 1 is the length of the rod, Th is the temperature of the hot end and Tcis the temperature of the cold end. This equation is of the same form as the radiation equation, if the geometric constants of the rod are folded into the constant of proportionality. Taking the cross-section area into the left hand side gives the equation in a heat flux form, which is implicit in the radiation case, the flux being given by dividing the heat transfer rate by the spherical area at radius r from the body center. With this commonality, we note that for a heated tank, for a small area of observation with a uniform temperature T on the outside of the tank, under steady state, the conduction and radiation equations cooperate in the creation of T such that the heat transfer for both the equations is the same. This ensures that this heat continuously escapes from the inside of the tank, to the outside, through that area, maintaining the steady T in the process. T is the critical parameter. The radiation equation points out the wasted heat for maintaining T on that surface. Maintaining a low T, close to Tcis critical. The heat loss per unit time, is given by dQ / dt = K(T -Tc), where K here is particular to the area under observation. In time t, the quantity of heat lost to the surroundings is given by the indefinite integral:

[0055] Q(t) = f K(T -Tc)dt, where substituting the starting and ending times ti and t2 gives the heat lost in that interval. This, simply put, is the area under the curve of the temperature graph on the outside of the tank. If the entire tank surface is tracked, the entire heat lost by the tank can be computed.

[0056] Assuming only fixed power heating sources, applicable easily to electrical and gas heating, and also solar, if the day is clear and a narrow window of time is modelled, then under steady state, the temperature T is fixed, and hence the heat lost comes to: Q(t) = k(T - Tc)t, where t = t2 - ti, is the duration of the interval

[0057] If the power sources change through the day, the area can be computed assuming a piecewise linear function as the sum of several intervals making up the day of the nature described above.

[0058] Suppose the tank surface, its entire thickness, has a heat capacity C. To maintain an external temperature T on the surface, the capacity must first be heated to this temperature. The lost heat is just the computation above, the capacity heat simply comprises heat that’s trapped within the outside surface and hence retained within the system. Once the water has been drawn, the external surface remains warm for the duration while this capacity heat is lost, so the capacity heat cannot be considered as useful water heat. When cold water inlet brings in fresh water, or power is reduced, the interior of the tank cools off and the capacity heat helps heat the water inside. Otherwise, the capacity heat is lost to the surroundings eventually. For a fixed T, the capacity heat is capped by a constant. The constant can be fairly large and hence not ignorable, given the observation that it takes a fair amount of time for the tank outside to arrive at T for fixed, continuous heating. But for such continuous heating, only one filled capacity’s heat loss is at stake. If cold water is brought into the tank at the end of the interval, substantial amount of the capacity heat can be pulled back into the tank, heating the fresh water, arriving at a low T on the outside, reducing heat loss to a minimum, till the next interval of heating starts with slightly warmer interior water representing saved capacity heat.

[0059] Now consider the effect of steam. Steam accumulates at the top of the tank, heating it very intensely, the latent heat of vaporization completely dwarfing the heat capacity of water. This heat can either make its way outside to a larger outside T at the top, or be pulled back into the water in a manner analogous to the other heat pulled back from the tank capacity. If water heating is quasi static, then no steam is created from the gentle heating process itself. Only the vapour pressure of hot water is the entirety of the steam above the water. There are two options - there is an air gap above the water (as in our openable tank, Figure 3), or none, as in a pressurized, closed tank. Vapour pressure is agnostic to such a choice. The pressure exists regardless and vapour bubbles, in the tank, if any, at the water temperature, float up to the top or get reabsorbed in the water, the bubbling being a constant feature of water, the extent being dependent on water temperature, much more at high temperatures. If the water is allowed to boil, then the vapour bubbling becomes a continuous process throughout the body of the water. The bouncing lids in a prototype’s tank (Figure 3), that we have constructed, don’t allow the pressure within to rise above about an atmosphere, but wasting heat through steam escape, but allowing the system to function, while in a pressurized tank, the bubbles raise the pressure in the system till the safety valve blows, incapacitating the system. There is not much of an option for a steam zone to arise at the top of the tank since the tank volume is fixed and water is not compressible. Before the safety valve blows, however, steam bubbles, at the system pressure, rise to the top and release heat disproportionately to the tank top than the rest of the tank, as the bubbles form and mix back into the water body, the drift to the top being a constant throughout this process.

[0060] Tank operation at boiling is an unplanned, rare situation. Ignoring this exception, consider the tank operation at low vapour pressure zones, say below 70 Celsius. Vapour pressure is well below a quarter atmosphere at such temperatures, so vapour bubbling is trivial. This is even more so in a highly pressurized closed system. If the heating is quasi static, the minor bubbling adds to the heated water at the top of a pressurized tank and creates a vapour pressure equilibrium in the air gap at the top of our prototype openable tank with the water below. The moist air in our tank top is hot with a condensation process taking place below the tank’s lid tiles, transferring heat to the tank top. So the top of the tank is hotter than the rest of the tank in our case also, from this vapour effect, as opposed to the heated water accumulation at tank top in other cases (aided by their vapour also). Assuming uniform tank insulation, the temperature difference of the top side in our tank, however, is not much, compared to the other sides, given the uniformity of water temperature and the minor vapour pressures being considered.

[0061] Now consider the case of intense heating. This is commonly the case in pressurized tanks, for electrical heating, given the need to have a throwaway, unmaintained tank, with minimum number of changeable heating element slots to minimize punctures in the tank. The common solution is a single element to heat the entire tank, forcing large wattage for the element. The result then is intense heating, non quasi static, which causes intense bubbling along the element surface as the water at the surface begins to boil. These bubbles and their upward drift add to the top surface heating and heat loss. On the contrary, we are able to add almost as many elements as we wish to our tank to ensure low wattage heating per element and hence a quasi static process. The tank top temperature, in our case, is not much higher than the other tank sides, keeping heat loss to a minimum.

[0062] In the discussion below, we point out how to use an electrical element at low wattage for quasi static heating, without loss of energy, from an electrical perspective. A choke inductor or capacitor can be used with a heating element, of resistance R, conveniently in series, to end up with a total impedence Z = R + jS, where j is the square root of -1, or the imaginary number i, written in Electrical Engineering as j, to preserve i as the denoter of current.

[0063] S arises from the use of either an inductor or capacitor, where S is positive for an inductor and negative for a capacitor. Either of the two needs be used, as both simultaneously cut each other’s contribution by the addition of a positive S to a negative S. The magnitude of the resulting impedence is given by square_root(R2+ S2). The power factor of the impedance is given by R / square_root(R2+ S2). Electrical utilities prefer consumer loads to have a power factor as close to 1 as possible, indeed penalizing lower power factors even monetarily to ensure compliance. A choke reduces the power consumed by the element to the fraction given by the square of the power factor of its impedance. Hence a choke is a perfect way of reducing power with 100% efficiency - the system just draws less power from the supply and the power lowering is lossless. To comply with the utility requirements, it is easy to work in pairs of elements, with balanced impedances, one capacitive and the second inductive. So the result is a parallel combination of R + jS and R - jS. The combined impedance of the combination is given by:

[0064] 1 / Z = l / (R + jS) + 1 / (R - jS) 1 / Z = 2R / (R2+ S2) Z = (R2+ S2) / 2R

[0065] Or in other words, the combination Z has no imaginary, or j component, the result not being complex, and simply being resistive and the power factor being 1.

[0066] Since the power factor of each individual heating can be reduced arbitrarily, this is a convenient method of reducing power, complying with utility requirements.

[0067] Other choke combinations are also possible, besides also a chunkier method of series / parallel combination of heating element resistances as given below:

[0068] • A series of 2 heating elements, with resulting power of each element quartered and the series having half the power of one element alone

[0069] • A series of 3 heating elements, with resulting power of each element divided by 9 and the series having a third the power of one element alone • A series of n heating elements, with resulting power of each element divided by n2and the series having 1 / n the power of one element alone

[0070] The advantage of the series method above is minimality - no choke materials are used or maintained. The cost is the limited power options made available. The life of an element depends on the length of immersion in water also, besides its life’s work measured in KWHs. Being able to work more efficiently by quasi-static heating reduces the total KWHs added up and being able to immerse the elements only for the season and clean them otherwise ensures that the larger number of generic elements used in Figure 3 are more economical than otherwise, e.g. the above-connected set of elements of pressurized tanks whose elements are not removable.

[0071] Heating water, for absolutely minimum energy expense, is therefore a planning exercise, for a set of demands placed by users, with a planning system ensuring the best combination of quasi static and accelerated heatings (higher powered elements to save time), to keep the energy expense minimum, within the constraints or objective of all users being satisfied.

[0072] The interface for the planning system can be a voice interface, asking users for their showering plans, the time, quantity and the minimum temperature of water. The system then tries to deliver this schedule of demands at the least expense. The schedule is obtained a day ahead, to be able to use slow quasi static heating. The known schedule is made available on a (virtual) notice board, so users know their status too. If the solution for a schedule can be made in less than a tankful, then no accelerator (i.e. large powered burner or element for fast heating, but with steaming effect) is needed, clearly, since quasi-static heating for a day will give the result. If the delivery demand is immediate, which is a rare case, possible to arise, as people change their mind, then for the same reason, it can be priced expensively as the demand for a tankful. So a first simplification that our scheduling system can make is that accelerators are used only on one or more tankful of water demand. That an accelerator is used only on a full tank of water and hence not in a dry run. The reason for such simplification is the relatively high power of the element and the cost of running it on a low water level in terms of radiation loss and the effect thereof on the tank health. A series element has much less power and its low water running is much more tractable.

[0073] The solution for a demand schedule then is an action schedule, the actions comprising:

[0074] • Cold water input ON / OFF Elements or burners ON / OFF

[0075] Cold water input control is not shown in Figure 1, since such control is not a common case, the common case being immediate refilling by cold water, upon the withdrawal of hot water. It is discussed explicitly here, because this control is reasonable in the context of Figure 3, which allows a partially filled hot water tank to be used.

[0076] Some of the demands may not be made explicitly up front, a user may just turn on the tap, say in a sink. If the withdrawal of water in this situation is substantial, it will trigger rescheduling the plan thereafter for the new status of the tank’s content.

[0077] Additionally, the system can take as input temperature input from the tank outside surface and the hot water temperature to make its decisions. This temperature input is optional, unlike water inflow and outflow, a timer can suffice, if the system is trained to work with time. A timer is not considered a physical measurement of the system disclosed, including its claims, as time is not system specific and represents a universal quantity that any watch, clock, or an internet-connectivity can provide.

[0078] The computation of an action schedule is driven by user selected objective / constraint sets, the desires being energy minimization and close compliance with the demand schedule.

[0079] Any solar water panels the system starts out with, e.g. the four in Figure 3, have to be apprised to the planning system, besides any other burners in the system, such as gas. Generally, these other burners in our system would be quasi-static, since the burners are placed well below the tank with a long upward convection path wherein steam of any generated by the burner has a chance to redissolve in water. Switches would run the burners, any non-quasi- static ones being treated similarly to accelerators by the planning system.

[0080] Economic optimization may be another objective added to the desirables, a choice among burners being dictated by the cheaper fuel or other concerns such as cleanliness, fuel availability. Opportunistic gains would be logged for free occasional burners, such as wind power, the system providing a storage form for the free energy.

[0081] Many of the objectives above may be simplified by a fancy tank construction, with sophisticated, high temperature capable insulators that can handle excessive steam heat on the top side, without conducting, the insulators acquiring high temperatures on their own and then reflecting it back into the tank water. The planning system can benefit such tanks by still reducing the steaming, ensuring longer life for the insulators and tank by operating the system in a cooler manner with energy loss strictly minimized only, albeit to a lesser degree, given the fancy insulation. More importantly, in such a tank, the reflected heat would ordinarily raise the top layer water temperature excessively, which can be eschewed by the planning system, offering better user experience. The chance of a safety valve blowup in such a tank from excess steam above the hot water layer also goes down as a result.

[0082] The heating problem can be roughly sized assuming perfect efficiency, for a tank of water volume V liters, for raising the temperature of the water by T as:

[0083] Kilowatt Hours of heating, KWHs = (V * 1000 * T * 4.2) / (3600 * 1000) = 7VT / 6000, where 1 ml of water is assumed to require 1 calorie, or 4.2 joules of heat to raise its temperature by 1 degree Celsius.

[0084] The KWHs have to be scheduled on the timeline by scheduling heating elements for some number of hours apiece, adding up to the KWHs demand.

[0085] There are many causes of inefficiency, so the KWHs computed above have to be adjusted for the implied wastage. Consider the first one, namely steaming. To motivate this, consider the heating of water in a pan. At any temperature, if the stove is turned up, the steam / vapour bubbles rising from the bottom of the pan increase substantially. Similarly, in a heating element, if the power is turned up, the bubbling and / or boiling of water at the surface of the element goes up. The relationship between steaming and element power is not linear. Suppose it were linear. Then the function between steam and power would be of the form: steam = m * power + b, where m is the slope and b the y-intercept of the line.

[0086] The b is clearly 0, since if the power is reduced to 0, steaming from the element surface stops. An m does not suffice, because, as we have observed in our prototype of Figure 3, quartering the power, by the use of the 2-series elements, does much, much more reduction in steaming than the factor of *4. We suspect the function of steaming is quadratic, or even larger, of the sort steam = k * power14, for some constant k and some number N > 1, but this is a conjecture that is yet to be established. The steam rises faster than a linear function with power, but the exact form of the function is a subject of (literature) research or expert opinion search that we wish to undertake in the future.

[0087] At quarter power, we find the 2 series elements we use become quasi static. The heating is gentle, the top of the prototype tank does not overheat, the temperature of a tank side is similar to the top temperature, which is highly encouraging, since the tank side reflects water temperature and not steam temperature as steam rises above the side to the top. The entire side retains a uniform temperature, all of which adds up to the confidence that steaming as a process, is ignorable. This test has been done on the prototype tank for half-dozen or more hours of heating with a pair of 2 series 2KW elements that provide 1KW of heating to the tank. There is some heat non uniformity on the top surface, the roof above the 2 elements (they are about a foot apart) being hotter than the rest of the roof, so although quasi static has been attained, perfection can still be chased with further work. The thought of going to 3 series, resulting in power reduction to 1 / 9*, per element does arise, but then the number of elements in the system goes up tremendously, which we’d rather avoid. So with the practical quasi static obtained from the 2 series, we proceed as follows. The principles below apply to lower powered systems, which may be practical in other / larger tanks, so a reader may wish to choose his / her own power points, including those with chokes.

[0088] The way to reduce steaming is to reduce the power of an accelerator. So the KWH requirement is best met by deploying the quasi static elements on the timeline only, and going to an accelerator only at the end when the supply is less than the demand. The unmet demand has to be met by one or more accelerators. For the unmet demand di decided to be met by an accelerator ai, in a time interval ti = [begin(ti) ... end(ti)], there are two ways to reduce the power and hence steaming:

[0089] 1. Time slice the interval, spreading accelerator ON times evenly through the interval, with accelerator OFF times intervening in-between. This method has the advantage of requiring no additional equipment, but the steaming reduction here is simply the ratio of the ON time with the interval time, a linear reduction effect, obtained by averaging the power over the time.

[0090] 2. Leave the accelerator ON the entire time of the interval, but instead use a calibrated choke to bring down its voltage, losslessly, to the desired power. Since the power during ON time is now reduced, the steaming is reduced maximally, as per the nonlinear relation among steam and power, in the duration. So if the multiplexing method above gives an averaging ratio r, and the steaming / power relation is quadratic, then this method will give a steaming ratio of r2. If this r2is sufficient to make the acceleration quasi static, then that result will be obtained. The multiplexing method above is strictly weaker than this choke method, but it requires additional equipment, namely the choke, in a manner analogous to a rheostat. Just as a variable resistance is obtained by a rheostat, a coil’s variable length in a similar manner can provide a variable inductor L. A variable capacitor can be obtained by the slider including a variable number of parallel capacitors, the number included adding up to the variable capacitance obtained. This method is particularly good to employ when pairs of elements can be choked, to keep the power factor of the system unity. This may be possible, even in the context of old-fashioned tanks with one element per tank by running pairs of tanks in parallel.

[0091] The accelerator multiplexing method, number 1 above, would preferably use a lot of time slices, to not have a large build up of steam in one contiguous ON slice. An interval of time in which one or more heating elements are deployed would ordinarily comprise of cold water input at the beginning and just after its end, or the termination of the heater use after the end, say for the day. Thus having an accelerator ON at the interval ends makes effective use of the cooling implied at the interval ends. So the OFF slices would be strictly in-between the interval ends, ordinarily. For uncontrolled cold water input, the schedule above would still suffice.

[0092] If an opportunity to use elements in series for power reduction presents itself instead of chokes, for example in running two old-fashioned tanks in parallel, then the series arrangement of the power elements of the tanks can also be used. One way to do this is to use dynamic switches to power the elements optionally either using variable chokes in parallel for say minor power reduction, or switch to a series arrangement for large power reduction. The planner decides when to switch in-between the arrangements, preferably automatically.

[0093] As we have empirically observed in our geyser (i.e. water heater) prototype, Figure 3, an accelerator when used near full power suffers a lot of wastage, due to excess steam. So the actual, useful KWHs of the accelerator, for heating power are a fraction of the spent power. The planning system has to factor in this ratioing up front, to be able to obtain the desired heating. The multiplying constant, the ratio between 0 and 1, however, is unknown without experimentation and the result varies from tank to tank. So a tank-specific table of ratios for different high powers has to be constructed, that is dependent on the tank geometry, materials, and deployment surroundings, which then best presents itself as an Al machine learning problem, to be solved by the planning system with minor training up front and self-tuning over time. In preliminary work with our prototype, ratios as low as 2 / 3, or %, and even lower have been observed, so ignoring the constants either wastes power, or user satisfaction or both.

[0094] At this juncture we would like to point out that qualitatively, we find that the Figure 3 system uses much less energy than the Figure 4 system we had in the past, for the same quantity of heated water. This can also be true in part because the Figure 4 system had suffered a safety valve-related explosion in the past, so its valve was replaced with a thin, insulated, open pipe rising above the cold water tank level, see Figure 4, which may allow some of its steam to escape.

[0095] Another concern that only the planning system can address is the availability of free or cheap power, to be used opportunistically, for even overheating at times, to grab an opportunity for storing power for later, to take economic advantage. Alternative energy sources, such as solar, or wind, or even fuel alternatives to electricity make this possible, such as gas, when available. We present an alternative in this disclosure, comprising a fireplace heat user, as an exemplar opportunistic energy source. Finally, we discuss how to size these sources for unified, planned use in a building, for all kinds of perennial uses, primarily involving heat transfers, using ours, modem, or other old-fashioned technology, as that is the biggest energy use in buildings worldwide.

[0096] The planning problem for a full tank can be formalized as:

[0097] AKWH = KWHmax * (1 - Decay[KWH / KWHmax, t]), where the tank was last left heated t hours ago, to an average water temperature whose ratio to the maximum temperature is KWH / KWHmax, Decay is a table lookup of the extent to which heat survives in the tank water after t hours of loss to the surroundings, the extent being expressed as a fraction of the tank water’s maximum heat, a tank / user specific constant, that is striven not to be exceeded and represents the preference for the user for his / her tank, except when saving excess free energy, say from solar, which otherwise would be wasted, but this is capped to a safety maximum.

[0098] AKWH is the heat to be supplied to the tank to raise its water temperature to the maximum in an interval of duration d. The heat demanded from accelerators is x and given by: x = AKWH - qs * d, where qs is the power of all available quasi- static heaters, added up and run for the entire duration d. The heat that the available accelerators can maximally supply is given by acc * d. If this is less than x, then the user is informed that the demanded heating is more than the system capacity and only best-effort heating will be done. Otherwise, if x is negative, some of the quasi-static heater scheduling is turned off to reduce x to 0. The choice of the heaters turned off can be dictated by priorities such as balanced use of the heaters, minimum switch / bumer toggling, diversion possibility of the heater input power - e.g. solar water panels cannot have their solar input diverted to other use, so switching them off is either not possible (safety of this has to be ensured otherwise, by the system configuration, straightforwardly), or an utter waste.

[0099] A positive x, less than acc * d * rect(x / (acc * d)), where rect(r) is a rectification table lookup, for reducing the accelerator energy to its effective value, according to the power ratio r e (0 ... 1] that the accelerators occupy the timeline with. As discussed before, the rectification depends on one of the two methods mentioned before, namely using (a) variable chokes, or (b) time slicing. Both the methods have different rectification tables and the table of the one actually deployed is used. For low values of r, the tables converge to 1, as the accelerators begin to behave like quasi static heaters. For the x demand here, the x / rect(x / (acc * d)) is actually supplied accelerator energy.

[0100] A positive x, greater than acc * d * rect(x / (acc * d)) has the user informed that the heat demand is greater than the system can supply and that only best effort heating will be carried out.

[0101] For this heating carried out, the KWH at the interval end is taken to be KWHmax, straightforwardly ratioed to less in case only best effort heating was carried out. From this value, a fraction of the value is subtracted, the subtraction being the amount of hot water taken out as a fraction of the tank volume. E.g. from a tankful at KWHmax heat content, if 10% of the hot water is taken out, the result has 90% of KWHmax left as the KWH at the end of the interval, that is then used for scheduling the next interval. This assumes that the hot water taken out is at the full heat, this being ensured by disallowing cold water input at the time in the case of our tank (Figure 3), or the usual case in pressurized tanks, e.g. Figure 4, where hot water is taken out from the top of the tank at full heat. In our tank, if continuous dilution by cold water is assumed, then, the subtracted quantity is reduced. If overheating of the tank is carried out in the tank, e.g. to store excess free energy, like solar, then the KWH is increased to account for the excess.

[0102] The scheduling of heating on a time interval D above assumes that the loss of quasi-static heating to the surroundings is ignorable. This is accurate because D is typically small, quasi- static temperatures are low (no steam), so heat loss in a small D is small. A large D is undesirable, precisely because heated water sits around unused, wasting heat to the surroundings as a result. So if the user demands hot water far into the future, the heating is best started a small time before the actual demand so as to not keep throwing heat away. If the water heater is properly sized, the supply of heat will be adequate to ensure a small D. The rare case of a poorly sized water heater, with low power, is either useless, namely, all the power will at best have the hot water arrive at equilibrium with the surroundings below the demanded temperature, making large D irrelevant, or the scheduling above will have to account for the heat losses along the way to arriving at the demanded temperature, which is tedious, but straightforward work. Poor sizing of a heater can arise in practice, due to maintenance issues, e.g. an element burnout and delay in replacement. Manual override to the user is probably the best answer in this case, the user specifying the scheduling explicitly, when a large D is encountered.

[0103] An interval is always terminated by hot water drawing, scheduled, or unscheduled (un-notified use), and the schedule thereafter is created or revised for the next interval. An interval can also end with system shut down, so that no planned heating occurs thereafter, e.g. at the end of the winter season in our prototype, wherein post winter, the system runs solely on the solar water panels shown up the incline in Figure 3.

[0104] An interval starts when the timer comes within D length away from a water demand. This may be precipitated by an unscheduled water withdrawal also. Such precipitation is only possible when sensors are used in the system. Otherwise, only user feedback compensates for such heat dilution, as may be done immediately (Figure 7), and the rest still working well, by ignoring minor withdrawals of water.

[0105] If less than a tankful of water is needed, as for example possible in Figure 3 unpressurized system, then for immediate use, a tankful is planned, as discussed before, or for deferred use, only quasi static heating of the demand is scheduled. This happens on a daily basis, when tank uses are limited. Excess withdrawal in such a scenario can trigger a schedule revision.

[0106] The scheduling above, comprises two tables, one related to heat loss over time, namely Decay[], and the other related to steam related heat loss, namely rect[]. The data in the table is tank construction and surroundings dependent, even user taste dependent, so it is best stabilized in a situation only after some manufacturer / user initialization, followed by convergence to final, possibly slowly evolving values, over time. This is a classic machine learning problem for discovering and tuning system parameters. The procedure for such learning is to ask for user feedback frequently, especially from reliable users, e.g. some guests in a hotel setting may not be trustworthy, and then revising the parameters by relatively stable (over time) trends noticed in mismatch between user feedback and the system expectations (the system has full faith in its proposed schedule and hence expects only full marks each time). Variations due to surroundings, e.g. is the piping well insulated, is the tank sheltered, or does it face rain and wind convection, or user taste, e.g. is hot 50 Celsius, or 70 Celsius, is a long shower 100 liters, or is it 200 liters, can therefore be accounted for in this method. Quantifying user taste is slightly different than the other parameters, since that provides more of a focus zone in the tables, of user interest, allowing the system to tune the focus zone more than the lesser used table parts, reducing the tuning cost as one benefit. User taste also dictates the value of KWHmax that the system arrives at. The value of KWHmax changes through the season as the surroundings temperature changes. Volume expectations decide the planning for tankful or not of water heating schedule.

[0107] In order to tune an entry in the table, for a history of K feedback forms, with that entry, a variation of the entry is tried to see whether that leads to a revision of schedules followed in the K cases, that is more consistent with the feedback given in those forms. If so, then the entry is changed to the revised value. A log of the entry changes is kept, to allow rollback if a change leads to worse results. The user may be consulted about the proposed change, if the person has the expertise and asks for consultation. Since the tables are of few entries only, the computation involved is not extremely expensive and can be done reasonably exhaustively to arrive at the best tuning. Being able to operate on focus zones of the tables makes this search and tuning easier. Sanity check of a proposed change can be done beforehand, for example, the decay of temperature over time is a monotonically downward curve, an energy decay curve change must preserve that monotonicity among the values in the table. The smoothness of the curve can also be checked for a proposed change, derivatives of the curve (slopes) manifesting proper ranges. In a similar manner, steaming data should reflect the monotonic increase of steaming and related waste with power. One or more entries may be tuned at a time.

[0108] Besides the two tables above, other tables can also be kept, for example a verifier of the power rating of an element. An element’s power may differ from the rated one because of (a) manufacturing tolerances, and (b) the voltage supplied to the element. The voltage is the electricity supplier’s prerogative. Tuning the average voltage supplied can be done via a voltage table.

[0109] Actual measurements can greatly help the table tuning enterprise, e.g. (a) a wattmeter for the actual power consumed by an element, (b) KWH measurement by actual temperature measurement of the water, its known volume, and then the heat content calculation. The cost of all this is of course in the number of instruments involved and their maintenance. This is non trivial, since computing the average temperature of a large body of water requires measurement of many parts of the water; similarly the number of elements can be many, requiring many power meters or energy meters. Generally, the volume of water in the tank at various times is useful, but not necessary (the heating signals given by user feedback pinch hitting to suffice) to measure, if the equipment cost and maintenance permits. A water level meter is sufficient for this, the before and after measurements cold water inflow indicating the amount of water brought in. For continuous water inflow, a standard volume meter, as used by Water Utilities can be used instead for both cold in and hot out to compute the heat content changes required for computing the schedule. Generally, it is better to work with cold water measurement, the hot water being of equal volume, if tank water level does not change. Cold inlet slowdown, for measurement purpose does not affect the pressure of the hot water outlet, at least in our geyser, Figure 3, while hot outlet measurement using a meter would cause a hot pressure drop. The desired hot temperature is according to user opinion, as gauged by the feedback polls, capped on the top to the maximum safety limit the system will actually work with, e.g. 70 Celsius. The cold water temperature changes with the weather and can again be estimated from weather reports, or the time of the year, with tuning applied to make a more accurate guess. Minimal measurement, and careful estimation are the key to successful heating. Minor temperature variations, such as too hot, the user is usually willing to forgive, mixing cold water being is / her prerogative. Too cold is not too easily forgiven, so conservative estimation on the hotter side is the safer way to proceed. Excess heating, only suffers the loss of slightly higher leftover water temperature, which when diluted with cold water for storage till next use, typically survives unscathed, keeping both the users satisfied and the energy management efficient. Our modem geyser offering, Figure 3, is particularly well suited for such use.

[0110] The scheduling objective can well be directed to the economic cost as opposed to energy minimization. So for example, the use of free energy, even if coming from an accelerator, may be used, or variably used, with some time slicing or choking, in order to target a user specified goal. Thus the objective of balancing the load among accelerators may be foregone for such a purpose.

[0111] Free energy, such as coming from an alternative source like solar, or wind, may have the overriding priority to store as heat in the tank, regardless of use. In such a case, the free KWHs will simply raise the tank temperature to high values, with the maximum allowed for the tank. The system controller can also help in the health diagnostics of the tank. Suppose the feedback(s) one day all assert a luke warm experience. The users upon probing by the system may reveal minor coldness, versus major coldness, the former allowing the controller to guess that a minor wattage element is at fault, as opposed to a major one, allowing the controller to suggest the checking and possible replacement of the minor element, while the system switches to alternative elements in the meantime.

[0112] The system here is extremely well suited to a fluctuating power supply. The store energy whenever you can philosophy can take the fluctuations in stride as a resistor, the basic heating element, has no difficulties in harnessing variable voltage. Thus any power generation, not committed to higher priority use can be fed to the water heater, preferably via a quasi-static element.

[0113] Generally, it is good for the controller to negotiate the lowest acceptable hot temperature for the user. The system then has a large zone between this value and the maximum temperature cap for the tank to store excess energy in. Keeping the committed temperature high at a low value reduces heat loss of the system. The system can do its best to have the excess stored energy consumed at the earliest next demand point, with less heating then, to realize the economic value of the earlier saving. Or if the excess saving is continuous, advise the users to splurge on the good harvest, and shower most luxuriously, while the going is good.

[0114] Linear composability of heating is assumed in the system above, which is standard, explainable as follows: when another identical heater / element is added, the heat and steam supplied are doubled, and only doubled; if one is taken away, its contribution of heat / steam alone is reduced. So the budgeting of heaters in the scheduling above adds and removes the heater contributions linearly only.

[0115] Air conditioning is the pride of any building, even today, decades after it became commonplace. Even the rich offices / homes find this pride difficult to afford and try to cut corners in reducing its operating costs, primarily energy. One clear reason is that as opposed to heating, which in very cold places is virtually a necessity, cooling, is not considered a necessity for survival. But technically, there is a clear reason, that the world goes around with, with blinders on, in ignorance. Air conditioning carries the burden of the Carnot cycle, while heating does not. Gas heating is commonplace and the heat released by burning fuel goes straight into the building / water as heat. So does electricity, but the cost of electricity can be higher, depending on the nature of its production, thermonuclear bearing the Carnot cycle cost, while solar / wind or hydroelectric do not.

[0116] Surprisingly, the air conditioning industry has not had the foresight to try to address this problem. It is well known that air conditioning costs vary by the season, the rainy season operating much less expensively than hot and dry. The first amelioration we propose is to simulate the rainy season in the hot and dry context, to reduce costs. A first observation is that in the rainy season, the air conditioner, like a refrigerator on whose principles it operates, acts as a de-moisturizer. De-moisturization, in the muggy season itself is a relief, allowing the skin to breathe, cooling a person, by evaporation cooling on the skin, in addition to other cooling. Another observation is that the air conditioner is almost never run with open doors and windows. The big rain droplets do not enter the air conditioned space, but the humidity of the entire city / geography rises, including the air conditioned room, without direct access necessarily to open weather, and then the dehumidification by the air conditioner kicks in. The dehumidification process of the air conditioner involves the condensation of moisture on the indoor unit radiator plates, which is then drained away. The condensation of water vapour is an exothermic process, releasing the large latent heat of vapourization of water to the cold coolant inside the radiator plates, heating the coolant, but cooling the indoor space as a result. The indoor space would still be cooled, by the fan in the indoor unit running the room air through the radiator plates transferring heat from the air to the coolant. However, the vapour condensation helps. The help is of a very large scale, and hence a rainy season bonus. As the vapour condensation on the indoor unit proceeds, the rest of the room humidity adjusts itself to the vapour gradient set up in the room and another evaporation process comes about within the room, along the vapour gradient(s), multiple due to the fan circulating the air, of the excessively humid air, with moisture droplets too, further vapourizing, breaking droplet sizes for one, into the less humid air spaces. All of these processes have energy costs, including vapour dispersion / diffusion / readjustment, that is paid for by the room space, which cools as a result. Now note most critically, that all of this transpires quasi statically in the rainy season. As the moisture in the room dries out, an equilibrium process is set up with the outsides, that brings further moisture into the room, as the room breathes through its boundaries.

[0117] We now propose a mechanism for simulating this effect in the hot and dry season. First moisture-laden air is created by the use of a generic air cooler cooling the building from the outside. Two such coolers, deployed in our prototyping house, the Adbhut House, the present residence of the inventor at 634, Sector 21, Gurgaon, Haryana 122016, India, is shown in Figure 5. As noticeable from the figure, the cooler soundproofing is an issue. Outdoor unit noise is an inadequately solved problem in both air conditioning and air coolers, we intend to dwell on this in a paper we intend to write later, as well as a sensorless prototype of this disclosure that we will make. An air cooler has two effects, lowering the building air temperature somewhat from the evaporation-based cooling it carries out, and adding humidity to the building air. The air cooler can be at a substantial distance from the air conditioned room, so the lowering of the air temperature and addition to the room moisture, occur slowly, as the room is gently and carefully, in a controlled, quasi static manner, exposed to the air cooler’s circulated air. In particular, the cooler is not run in the air conditioned room itself, simultaneously, through a window say, blasting the air conditioners cooling effect away, as the air is circulated away from the room. This is not to say that a hybrid air cooler / conditioner cannot be devised that operate in one space directly. The purpose here is to keep the air conditioner gently / quasi statically moisturized, using a generic cooler, with its limited capabilities. Among other benefits, the quasi-static process keeps the air-conditioned space quiet and calm, one of the requirements of air conditioning.

[0118] The coefficient of performance of a refrigerator / air conditioner is given by Q2 / (QI-Q2), the ratio of heat taken from the cold reservoir, numbered 2, given by Q2, to the work done by the coolant part of the air conditioner, given by Q1-Q2, the energy difference of the reservoir heats, supplied by the compressor of the air conditioner. This is a figure of merit for the performance, not an efficiency measure, which as we have already stated, we revise in our work by not wasting heat in any reservoir (here Qi, that a prior art air conditioner would throw away). For a Carnot air conditioner, the coefficient of performance reduces to T2 / (TI-T2). The rainy season generally lowers Ti, the outside temperature, which improves the coefficient of performance, or in other words, the bang for the buck, of the compressor part, the reason in the first place, for having the air conditioner. For the air cooler, with its joint cooling of the building and the outside temperature remaining outside the equation, the performance has to be gauged from the non- referigeration engine that the system represents, using Q2 / (QI-Q2) directly, where the system increases the heat supplied to the coolant, viz. Q2, for the lesser amount of work done by the compressor, as in the rains. Thus this system beats the Carnot performance, but this is not an impossibility, as the system is not a (pure) refrigerator and hence not theoretically limited by Carnot.

[0119] This concludes our discussion of improving the heat transfer of the indoor unit of an air conditioner. An important additional benefit that this improved indoor unit provides, is the increased moisturization of the air conditioned room, whose otherwise drying effect can be deleterious to the (skin) health of the users. The mechanism for the cooler / air conditioner system is shown as an option in Figure 1. It comprises door, window, curtain opening and closing controls, along with control of the air coolers to allow the building air to be cooled and wetted controllably. The focus is the careful cooling and moisturization of air conditioned spaces, quasi statically, by letting the insides of an airconditioned room breathe the surrounding cool / moisturized air, sent by a cooler. Moisture and temperature tracking of these spaces allows the controller to adjust this apparatus for cheaper and more effective air conditioning. Again, these sensors may be eschewed, and the controller simply use user feedback to schedule the cooling and moisturization of the focus spaces and the building as a whole, in a manner analogous to the work it does for water heating. Further, just as excess energy is stored in the heated water, excess energy in the summers can allow more energy storage as moisturized cooled air in the building and building cooling as a whole. For solar energy excess, generated in the day, the moisturization can be stored mostly in the day, the resulting lasting well in the night till everyone goes to bed, reducing the load of such work in the night, when the solar energy for such work is already low. Different coolers may be scheduled at different times, to control the air flow. A cooler may be multiplexed with an air conditioner in the same space to allow the air conditioning to work in a pre-moisturized context (Figure 5). The controller may control the air conditioners also for such a purpose. Machine learning for air conditioning control is simpler as it primarily involves the discovery of mostly unchanging control patterns for most use of circulation control. This comprises table settings for specific air conditioned rooms / spaces and directing to them as the air conditioners are used. User feedback can help tune these, after simple initial training. Scheduling is a simple problem, just manage an average amount of moisturization with not very large gaps in the cooler operations during the day, using primarily leftover free energy, whenever available, for the purpose. The choreography and learning involved in the controller application discussed below, for natural lighting in the house, and fresh air circulation are simpler and largely a subset of the air conditioning related circulation discussed above.

[0120] In an ordinary air conditioner, the heat sent to the outside unit of the air conditioner, Qi, is thrown away using a large fan in the outdoor unit. This thrown heat is the intrinsic waste of the refrigerator. Recovering this waste is extremely important, which can be done using a chemical means as follows. By the Le Chatelier principle, an endothermic reaction progresses better if heat supply is increased. The outdoor unit can easily be modified to supply the heat to an endothermic reaction vat, whose results can then be recovered for use later within the building, or elsewhere (after transportation). Reversing the reaction of the results, to recover the initial chemicals, is now an exothermic process, releasing energy as a result. The released energy can be obtained in multiple forms. E.g. if the reverse reaction is carried out electrolytically, electricity is generated, much as it is done in a battery. If heat is the output sought, the exothermic reaction would release heat directly. So from a building perspective, the heat can be captured during air conditioning in the summer and used for heating in the winter, or electricity generated for the building, any time. The thermal and battery-like behaviour of this means of Qi recovery has implications for other industries also, where the Carnot cycle is involved. For example, the automotive industry over the years has arrived at electric cars where the Carnot cycle is bypassed. But its hybrid vehicles using a combination of heat engines and electricity, still do not recover the Q waste implicit in the heat engines, while tiny benefits like kinetic energy recovery from braking are the main bragging points. The battery-like chemical process described above can clearly be the means for these electric car variants to be able generate more energy efficiency. The selling point for mainstream cars is mileage per unit of fuel; mileage can increase multifold, if the wasted Q is recovered.

[0121] The entirety of this process resembles a heat-driven battery, a new product category, which can easily improve the entire solar energy market, by replacing photovoltaic panels with black- body-absorption-based, heat-to-electric panels. Photovoltaic panels use diodes in their construction, each diode capable solely of a tiny frequency absorption of the entire solar spectrum. A black body absorber can cover the entire spectrum and hence in its dedicated area, which can be spread over the entire panel, absorb much more energy than a non-overlapping spread of diodes of different, but tiny frequency bands.

[0122] Recovery of Qi as a thermal output can be done without a chemical process, if the use of the output is immediate. In this case, the outdoor unit can serve to heat water, that then becomes a heater for the hot water tank we have talked about previously. Such usage may be of interest to some air conditioning customers, but not all, as air conditioning occurs in the summer, when hot water on a large scale is not the need. The hot water can drive say the heat need of a (large) kitchen, so restaurants as air conditioning customers may be interested in this use.

[0123] Consider now, the recovery of wasted heat from a fireplace or furnace, from at least the hot air, gases, smoke that it sends up its chimney. Other heat that may or may not be considered wasted is the heated hearth, its walls, floor, sloping roof etc. If an attempt at recovering such heat has to be done, the mechanism has to be high temperatures capable, since furnaces, at least in industrial use, can acquire very high temperatures. The first, most expensive, and best answer is to build custom monolithic piping for the fireplace / furnace / chimney, with no joints at all, of high-temperature capable metal, such as corrosion-resistant steel, through which a lot of water / fluid of high heat capacity can be circulated, to carry away the heat. Fat piping is best, to have a lot of fluid taking heat away, keeping the piping temperature low. Single piping, with no joints means no chances of leak, or a joint giving way under hot temperature, e.g. the threading in the joint burning out. The fluid can be circulated with force, for very high heat furnaces, or work with convection alone, which mostly will suffice as water under convection moves rapidly. The single piping may have joints far away from the furnace, where the temperature has settled, far from the fiery spots in the furnace and the heating is from the hot fluid alone, which is bound by the boiling temperature of the fluid, which is typically low (relatively). The relatively cold water coming from the tank will have a lower temperature than the hot convection water going back to the tank from the fireplace piping. Joints in the hot outlet from the piping are best kept further away than those in the cold water inlet to the fireplace piping, since the temperature there is lower. Our geyser hot water tank will serve well to connect this piping to, just like the solar panels are connected to it and work with convection alone. Indeed the piping will connect to the solar panel openings of any rooftop hot water tank and work with convection, for example, the pressurized geyser the Adbhut House had used in the past shown in Figure 4, where the shown cylindrical tanks are under the full height of the cold water tank contained in the red walls above and besides the cylindrical tanks. It will provide quasi static heating to the system, because any fireplace is at least a floor high vertical distance away from the rooftop, ensuring the water / fluid travels a long distance, horizontal and vertical, giving a chance for steam / vapour to subside and merge in the below boiling water / fluid. Next, consider this system comprised of commonplace, generic parts, as shown in Figure 2, to reduce expense. The monolithic piping may also have this shape, or may streamline this. In this figure, ordinary GI pipe lengths used for plumbing are laid out in an X pattern, with the ends of the X protruding out of a chimney on both sides. The heat supply is contained within the chimney. The outer ends of the GI pipe can be hot, but the heat here comes from the hot fluid moving inside, which is capped by the boiling temperature of the fluid. Thus, joints capable of handling the boiling temperature can be straightforwardly constructed to connect the upper ends of one X pattern to the lower ends of another X pattern directly above. In this manner, the entire length of the chimney can be crossed with no joints inside the chimney at all. Maintenance if any can easily be done on the outside pipes. Pipes more corrosion resistant than GI can be used optionally. The construction in the chimney can be extended to the hearth portion of the fireplace / fumace also, to cross it and be connected with joints below the floor of the hearth. Since hot water / fluid rises, this lower portion will be relatively cool anyway. Recovering the heat of the chimney is relatively easier than the hearth, and also, the hearth people may not want to touch for aesthetic reasons, or to keep the hearth’s soaked heat around, for radiation after fireplace use also. We ourselves are of this opinion and intend to do only chimney piping in our prototypes. The piping outside the chimneys can be insulated for better heat capture. An X comprises of two pipes laid out in this pattern, with no connection between the pipes. Multiple X patterns can be laid throughout to capture more heat. The width of the X pattern is close to the width of the chimney. The length can be much larger. The X patterns can be buried in the chimney / hearth walls for aesthetic reasons. In Figure 2, dashed lines show the piping outside the chimney and hearth, both shown as rectangles, the hearth being wider. The dashed lines contain any and all joints, the inflow comes in at the bottom, and outflow goes out at the top, with insulation covering this (dashed) piping.

[0124] From an energy management perspective, the power rating of a heat source is very useful. In the case of this furnace heat re-user, no fixed rating is possible. However, accurate characterization of its dynamic power generation can be made using our intelligent controller. The first observation for this purpose is that regardless of the fireplace / furnace burner construction or the amount of fire, the actual heat supplied to the tank is very closely linked to the rate of convection flow to the tank. The flow is higher if the fire is strong. It is low, if the fire is weak. A larger flow carries a hotter fluid to the tank. The flow rate is dynamic, given the dynamic situation in a fireplace in general. A flowmeter in this pipe, provides an accurate metric for computation of the energy supplied by the fire to the tank. The intelligent controller can have a table mapping flow to power and the integration of this power over the interval of the burner use can provide the energy supplied. Alternatively, the total volume of water moved in the fire duration can be mapped directly to energy supplied using a table. The time interval of the burner use can be used additionally in this computation. The controller can populate the table data by learning, as discussed earlier, using user feedback forms, wherein accurate heat supply by the convection source results in better scheduling. This leads to a better alignment of system expectations and predictions with the user feedback. The ensuing learning causes better data tuning in the table. This mechanism need not be restricted to the fireplace / furnace burner. It can be applied to any convection burner connected to the hot water tank. The solar energy supplied any day by solar water panels can therefore be carefully characterized and hence scheduling improved for all heaters. In a sensor-less system, user feedback and timer information can help tune qualitative estimates to the heating provided.

[0125] The controller can carry out an additional function of monitoring the weather and then using the coolers to let in fresh air at opportune times. Whether the fresh air is moisturized by wetting it with cooler water circulation or not, may be decided by the controller automatically, or with user consultation. For this to happen, the cooler water panels have to be automatically removable, to be put back when the controller decides, or some other means used to stop wet panels from wetting the air, if so decided. This function can be a daily carried out chore by the controller, or it can be an opportune use of amenable weather by the controller for controlled air conditioner use.

[0126] The controller may integrate natural light management, such as sunlight and moonlight, for both minor energy management, avoiding electricity use, and better, for aesthetic and health reasons. This may be carried out by curtain control and / or (opaque) door / window control. These controls are already present in the system for air cooling and moisturization, so the overhead for this additional function is minor.

[0127] The controller may further integrate CCTV monitoring and control for building safety purposes, such as fire safety. These are topics we may explore in the future.

[0128] As a summary, we point out that Figure 1 shows the various optional components that may be present and run by the controller and together comprise the system. An individual subsystem, for example, the energy storage in water subsystem, may comprise quasi static heaters and accelerators. The quasi static heater may be solar, or the waste energy recovered from a fireplace. Components are numbered, so the individual doors and curtains may be controlled for air circulation. Energy may be stored thermally or converted to electricity, for example in supplying the various heaters. The supplies are switched, for individual turning ON / OFF according to schedules. Many inter relationships between components are shown by links, for example the fireplace heater and quasi-static heating, or coolers and air conditioning.

[0129] The structure of a schedule is shown in Figure 6. It comprises the timer timeline at the bottom, and timelines of individual elements above. Only the ON sections of element timelines are shown, an interval comprising the beginning of a line segment, that ends some time later at the right, at the end of the interval. A vertical line connects the line segments of related elements. So for example the figure shows two related elements in an interval, the upper one having a dashed segment in between, depicting a time-sliced accelerator and the other one being a quasi static heater. Learning and tuning of data tables is shown in Figure 7 as the basic interactive structure followed by the never-ending process, once the system has started. The amount of human interaction may be minimized, once stability has arisen, but in principle, the process is endless.

[0130] A building with our controlled energy management system will immediately realize lower expense and better utilization of all energy, including its own limited supply of alternative energy. Alternative energy is always scarce, there is only so much roof space for solar / photovoltaic panels, and wind power, etc. The space for such power has to be released, which is always a budgeting exercise. Accurate sizing of such power is therefore an important topic. The system we have disclosed here allows this space to be minimized to have the alternative energy used to the maximum effect, the year around. Excess alternative capacity can be avoided. For example sizing for peak use in summer or winter may make the capacity idle for the rest of the year. The system we have disclosed shaves off excess cost of heating and cooling, in both the summer and winter seasons, flattening the heat transfer related cost of a building, perennially. The alternative energy capacity can be sized thus for maximum return on investment (RO I). This, further, realizes the magnification effect we have disclosed in this work; that the smaller, carefully sized energy capacity (alternative, or even otherwise) now stands magnified to cover the entire year’s needs, with its full utilization and maximized ROI.

[0131] Energy is a gift from infinity; it behooves us to use it well.

[0132] Benefits, other advantages, and solutions to problems have been described above with regard to specific embodiments. However, the benefits, advantages, solutions to problems, and any component(s) that may cause any benefit, advantage, or solution to occur or become more pronounced are not to be construed as a critical, required, or essential feature.

[0133] While specific language has been used to describe the disclosure, any limitations arising on account of the same are not intended. As would be apparent to a person in the art, various working modifications may be made to the process in order to implement the inventive concept as taught herein.

Claims

I CLAIM:

1. A controller system for magnified, energy storage and management in a smart building, the magnification comprising one or more of: a. Quasi-static water / fluid heating, by non-quasi-static heaters capable of generating intense steam / v apour, for steam / v apour minimizing heat storage; b. Use of both energy branches of the Carnot energy bifurcation; c. Quasi-static humidity and temperature control on the cold reservoir side of a hybrid air conditioning system for bettering the Carnot efficiency or performance limit.

2. The controller of claim 1, with a convection-driven, fireplace / furnace waste energy reusing heater as alternate energy input.

3. The controller of claim 1 , where the energy and power supply from a convection-driven heater can be estimated based on the water or fluid flow from the heater.

4. The controller of claim 1, where the heat thrown by the hot side reservoir of a heat pump or air conditioner is fed back for storage and immediate or deferred use.

5. The controller system of claim 1, with self-tuning intelligence built into the controller, the intelligence being manifest, allowing the controller to estimate any to every physical measurement using its feedback-based internal reasoning for accurate function, whether or not actual measurements are made and equipment therefor is present and working, allowing the option of system and maintenance minimization as a whole.

6. The controller system of claim 1, where the humidity and temperature control on the cold reservoir side heat pump or air conditioner is provided by evaporation cooling and air circulation control.

7. A controller system for magnified, energy storage and management, the magnification comprising the capture of wasted energy in thermal form from the solar spectrum, or a heat engine or pump reservoir, for conversion and storage or use thereafter.