Unless there are alterations to pressure, after the ice melts the water warms and there is no longer any cooling.

Could put the kiwi on the south and west facing walls/roof where the sun is most punishing for best ROI. Have you ever analyzed the NASA-derived ceramic bead paint additive? Could you do a video on it? I find it works extremely well, wish I had added it to my ceiling paint. It seems to add to paint durability as well.

Do we have an estimate as to how that might impact the R-value assemblies?

One inverter to two or four panels makes a lot of sense. Everyone seems to love Enphase, one-to-one, but they're so expensive. You can save a lot by going the way you did. I was considering APsystems for my solar system as they have a very similar solution.

Rally interested in how this works for you. The costs of building new construction are insane still. Being able to pull long term savings is more important than just being environmentally positive. Cutting back on other monthly costs is a need for the average family.

I was about to make the same comment.

Thank you. He needs to add a message about that.

Yep, that was a pretty significant error.

I wondered about that too. Very interesting and informative video, nonetheless.

He drew the graph and talked about it as if they were swapped and I got confused for a second

True. But the energy storage has a (small?) insulation effect by keeping the temperature of the material the same temperature as your house, thus limiting the heat exchange between the two.

@@RobertLBarnard yeah makes more sense to have phase change material inside the house in areas you want to fight temperature shifts

Now your question is what temperature range do I design for? Desert conditions or arctic conditions like in Canada. Noooo!

@@skidaddledude1997 I think a comment above can solve the question, have 2 layers installed in the van. One with a melting point of 15C and another with melting point of 25C. This way you can ensure a phrase change for most weather band widths

I have exactly the same use in mind, only using a bread van/tiny home approach. Perhaps 1/4" of glued in Styrofoam and then a layer of phase change material for cold , with another 1/4" Styrofoam and then another layer for heat, and then your finish paneling. $1000 to $!250 ought to do all surfaces including the floor. A small AC and a mini wood stove should cover most locations. I'm going to put in a suggestion on the 'Project Farm' channel to test this material in a future show. He does some really good tests on a variety of products.

He said the material goes on the outside. How are you supposed to tape these things on the outside of a van?

@@allocater2 Not to mention how hot exterior metal would be in summer. That's why I thought a 1/4" of Styrofoam on the inside to slow the incoming heat. Then the first layer of phase change material. I can't see any other way, as it seems pointless to tape directly to the metal wall skin on the inside or outside. Maybe someone has a better idea?

At the phase change temperature is the same. The energy rises at the same temperature

@@chiliphil64 I think he means that the energy input is constantly increasing (x-axis) but temperature stays constant at phase change temperatures (y-axis). The way he drew the dashed line, the y axis is temperature and the x-axis is energy input.

At 2:55 Ricky mentions that the product is customizable. I wonder if it would make sense to use two customizations in the same wall. For example if it is possible to make the freezing/melting point 15C or at 25C, would layers of the two combined help keep the house more temperate than using a single larger layer tuned to 20C?

Well, not necessarily just in deserts. It depends on the material and at what specific temperature it changes pahse, so you would probably just need a daily temperature delta that's pronounced enough and a material that changes phase within that delta for it to work.

@@From_Heller I didn’t mean just deserts, but the swing has to cross “room temperature “. A place like Miami in the summer or Minnesota in the winter are not helped.

After spinning it in my head for a couple of minutes, I think you are probably right about the "crossing room temperature" constraint... I didn't take it into account and was just focused on the material properties :)

Heating and cooling are "your largest energy bills"? Well, no... in total, the biggest energy consumer is transportation.

What good would a phase change "insulation" be in the upper midwest where it is cold day and night in the winter. It would freeze and stay frozen, offering little resistance to heat transfer.

@@pauleohl True not so much in the winter, that's why our furnaces run damn near 24/7 from Halloween to Memorial Day. During the summer they'd be good at reducing the use of air conditioners though.

@@michiganengineer8621 Only if it cools off enough at night to change the phase back to solid.

@@incognitotorpedo42 Even in summer the nights are usually cool enough to make that shift. _HOWEVER,_ Unless that price tag comes down DRASTICALLY it's just going to be a toy for the rich.

@@michiganengineer8621 Considering that traditional insulation is mandatory for the winter, where would you put the phase change material? And what is your logic for how it would work? For the sake of this discussion, let's say that removing and replacing drywall is not an issue.

Not a bad idea! I hate how poorly wood stoves keep places warm at night - the old stone chimney hearts used to help immensely be releasing heat all night. Near room temp Phase change material like coconut oil, sodium sulphate hydrate or parrafin wax helps do that job while being much lighter for the same energy storage

ohh yeah.... we even eat it so that we can act as a bio-airconditioner.....

It is a curious product, much more experimentation needed. What would be a cool thing to experiment with it on?

Placement of the material is a primary focus. PCMs are used to best effect when they communicate with the heat source. So..In a mostly cooling environment you will want to place the material closer to the outside surface(siding) with your insulation layer between it and the conditioned space. The PCM will absorb and reduce the delta across your insulation layer during the melting phase then follow the path of least resistance(back to the outside (ambient) when it gives it up and refreezes. In areas where heating is primary, the heat source would be the conditioned space. Placement would be inside the sheet rock with the insulation toward the outside (ambient). excess heat from furnace or fireplace that is otherwise lost will then be intercepted by the PCM, then when the heat source is turned down in the evening, and the temp in the room reaches the PCT, it will give the heat up back to the room keeping it moderated for hours

when i get ready to rip out the drywall and do this, you bet!

phase change material and spray foam are different materials for different purposes. spray foam is an insulation material, slowing down the heat exchange between inside and outside. it does not store heat. phase change material, on the other hand, stores heat but it does not provide insulation, IOW it does not slow down the heat exchange. if you don't have insulation, i don't see the point of phase change material, because PCM will not affect how much heat is lost. what i would do if my numbers came up is make sure that the house is really well insulated and then add some phase change material.

@@mrxmry3264 Properly installed closed cell spray foam is also an air and vapor barrier, something those other froms of insulation don't do (well, maybe the PCM, but it depends on how it's installed and if the edges are all bonded). I suspect PCM is great for places with daily temperature swings above and below comfortable temperatures (e.g. deserts), but not as useful in cold climates.

@@mrxmry3264 The object of the PCM is to control the heat by absorbing it and then discharging (desorbing) it. The benefit is controlling peak temperatures and the delta across an insulating layer.. Imagine a 72 degree thermostat setting, with an R 20 of glass or some other insulation then air attic air temp of 140. What you have in this example is a 68degree delta across the insulation layer (140/72=68) Now lay a 3/8" blanket of PCM on top that stays at or near its phase change temperature of say 82f. What you have done is controlled the delta across the insulation layer. Dropping the temperature difference from 68 degrees to 10. An R 20 is much more likely to give satisfactory results when dealing with a 10 degree delta than a 68 degree. This is appropriate for largely cooling environments.

@@TwoBitDaVinci Appreciate it, Ricky.

Agreed. I looked into the cost of it and was soured immediately for retrofitting. It may make more sense in new construction, but I quit doing the math at that point.

@James Karrie Actually it can make some sense for many older homes with poor air infiltration control that experience more rapid heat gain and loss in less extreme environments. But even in my 1901 built home, I don't see that penciling out in my favor for decades.

@James Karrie There is some debate over the efficacy of completely sealing older homes like mine without rehabbing the siding with a wrap or otherwise. It was built to shed water and breathe. Making the siding air tight risks trapping moisture and creating an environment for rot that is simply not an issue at all for it now (except for exterior window sills when the paint has failed). I'm sure it's possible if done right, but 122 years of avoiding rot so far is a tough record to buck.

Lowes is looking at carrying it

"I would like to see how this product functions in addition to a properly installed insulation." - I think that's the way it's meant to be used, never on its own. Remember, the manufacturer simplifies their explanation and always presents the best case scenario. But in the real world, the situation is a bit more complex. The phase-change material (henceforth PCM) will absorb heat from the sun during the day, using it to fuel its melt. Unlike the sun in the manufacturer's presentations, though, the real one is not so considerate to stop shining the moment your PCM has fully liquefied. And at that point, the PCM can no longer absorb excess heat efficiently and becomes useless. You can retard the moment at which this happens by adding classical insulation: the more heat you keep away from the PCM, the less it needs to absorb, and the slower it "runs out". At night, assuming the outside temperature falls below the melting point, the PCM will solidify, and release its stored energy. Once all the material has solidified, it becomes useless again. Assuming the PCM is your only means of insulation, most of its stored energy is simply released into the atmosphere. But assuming decent insulation, it becomes harder to release to the outside, and most of the stored energy gets released to the inside of the house instead. But what about high summer or the dead of winter? Well, I don't know where you live, but where I live, the temperature ranges for summer and winter don't overlap, which means there is no viable phase change temperature that would work in both seasons. So a choice has to be made. If we optimise for summer, then the material becomes useless in winter. If we optimise for winter, it becomes useless in summer. So we need a solution for the season in which the material does not contribute. And again, classical insulation is the answer here. So no matter what the situation, proper insulation is the base on top of which one might opt to install this for additional comfort and/or decreased climate control bills.

Seems like its worth experimenting with.

where?

I am in Atlanta and have spray foam in my attic. Before spray foam the attic temperature could be 120 degrees in summer. After spray foam never higher than 90 degrees. It cost about $7000 to install. It makes a big difference in electricity bills. Looks like this other material might be more efficient but more costly.

@@atlantasailor1

I saw a good video on earth covered houses by an engineer. He said the extra engineering and structural support, and the extra maintenance you need rarely offset the savings. He said a thicker wall is a better solution, unless you have a tight lot and no other place to put your lawn. A breakthrough I'm watching is aerogel filled windows. Windows, even triple glazed heat reflecting, still are always going to be your weak point. Aerogel has such insanely high R values per inch though that it can give them a fighting chance. The trick is to make the aerogel clear enough, solar degradation resistant, and affordable.

@@nacoran Of course, if you have a link or name, I'd appreciate it :-). But it's a bit strange, earth covered house should be maintenance free, not the opposite. I'm talking about real earth covered house, not a "green roof", which is a kind of fashion these days. As for structural point, we in Europe already build houses from materials, that are able to bear quite a load. Concrete houses are no exceptions, and it's not more expensive, than our other options. As well as insulation - we insulate houses a lot anyways. Of course, earth-covered house is still a bit more expensive, primarily due to unique design procedures and very important and costly water proofing. If a design and/or construction of an earth covered house is underestimated, then it turns into nightmare, that's totally true. But it should be done in a way that it will last hundreds of years without touching anything else but things like appliences. I don't know about aerogel, I have quite doubts about it, but time will tell :-). My tripple pane windows filled with Argon gas are doing quite good job, I'd say. I mean most of houses didn't even get to that point of effectiveness, even here in Europe. Any financially feasible solution is appreciated, of course.

Regarding 2) do you have experience with them? Or does these products have authentic public reviews by construction companies, individual owners, etc? Could you please share such products and company names? I'd be interested in doing some research about such products in the EU / Europe.

@@1dayUllC I had seen at least 3 companies proposing such products but I found an article about it and apparently, none of these products were successful and are no longer marketed. An alternative idea is to place pcm materials between two layers of normal drywall... pcm materials expand and contract significantly so that has to be taken into consideration. I have plans but no experience.

Also, there are several brands of thick flexible glue used for sound blocking by putting this glue between two sheets of normal drywall. This could be used between the pcm packets for both sound deadening and thermal storage.

@@AnnVole Appreciate your help and update.

@@1dayUllC Some product names to check include "Knauf Comfortboard", "National Gypsum's ThermalCORE", and "Micronal PCM"

This material works on daily temperature differences. It does nothing for seasonal differences. During the day it absorbs heat, during the night it releases heat. All the while (ideally) keeping the temperature of inside of your house, so no heat is exchanged between the inside and the material.

Very little. It would keep your house warmer for a while if your heating broke down.

One of the really interesting things about PCMs is when they give up their heat (begin to refreeze) they do so at largely one temperature IE very near their PCT (Phase Change Temperature). Meaning, the PCM is always going to be slightly warmer than ambient and the surrounding areas when dew point temps are reached. So while condensation is technically possible, it is highly unlikely

@@garygray-fx1ho Interesting 🤔! Makes sense. Do you have experience using these for insulations?

Use it as heat/cool.. Converting heat or mechanical energy to electricity is valuable of course but much is lost in the conversion. Heat is heat, no conversion losses. Use it..

Excellent choice Terry, In heating environments Put the rock wool in then PCM then sheetrock, In cooling, PCM, Rockwool sheetrock.. Use the Rock wool to control the direction of heat flow when the PCM gives up its heat

We actually made it out of fake lanterns a long rope a filament style led bulb and some rope! Bit of a crafts project

Feel like it would be an eye sore and a lot of work… prob best in your forever house