Hacker News Reader

I’m not so much concerned about it being an open system but rather that it relies on water as a process fluid. Sure running a geyser for 30+ years is fine if all your losing is thermal efficiency. But in this case we are talking about sticking your neck out for 50% efficiencies.

How long before fouling, pump degradation or just simply water sacristy cripples a system like this? Or simply renders it so inefficient to be superfluous?

Connecting it to plumbing is a big issue and will limit it’s usefulness. Also, energy density doesn’t matter for this use case - it’s just sitting outside your home or garage and there is enough space.

They should make this into a portable unit and sell it as a UPS. Higher storage density is useful here.

You need to top up water: > You connect it to your solar inverter (it has to be a hybrid one) and the mains water (through a purification unit)