This looks like something that needs to be done before the house is built, under the foundation / slab? Or did I read it incorrectly? Either way, I had to really push on my contractor just to do a heat pump. (And there are two large areas of sand under my house, one under my garage and the other under my sunroom.) I don't know how I could get someone to build that where I live.
I also couldn't tell if this is something that warms up throughout the year, or if this is something that warms up during the day and cools at night? Where I live, the days are very short in December / January, so I'm not sure if would work if it's day-to-day instead of seasonal.
Thanks for the feedback! Sorry I didn't see it until now.
People do install electric night storage heaters in existing housing, and this is just an especially cheap recipe for one. I don't think it would take much more space, although feolite and similar materials could cut the size by half. So it might be easier to do it before the house is built, but it shouldn't be necessary. Some wood floors wouldn't be strong enough to hold the weight, though.
I was proposing a daily thermal store, not a seasonal thermal store. A seasonal thermal store needs to be about a hundred times larger, which probably necessarily situates it outside the house. There does definitely exist housing that doesn't receive enough sunlight to compensate for its lack of insulation, especially in the winter.
This looks like something that needs to be done before the house is built, under the foundation / slab? Or did I read it incorrectly? Either way, I had to really push on my contractor just to do a heat pump. (And there are two large areas of sand under my house, one under my garage and the other under my sunroom.) I don't know how I could get someone to build that where I live.
I also couldn't tell if this is something that warms up throughout the year, or if this is something that warms up during the day and cools at night? Where I live, the days are very short in December / January, so I'm not sure if would work if it's day-to-day instead of seasonal.