Solar Power captured in Summer – Used in Winter

Interseasonal Heat Transfer™ from ICAX Ltd is a patented system that takes advantage of a clear understanding of a number of natural phenomena. These include the huge heating power of the sun that provides sufficient heat directly to almost every building in temperate climates to yield a comfortable temperature all year round on average. However, the sun provides more than enough heat most buildings on bright summer days and insufficient heat to most buildings for comfort in winter. ICAX captures the surplus naturally occurring energy in summer, stores it in ThermalBanks™ in the ground – where heat does not move very far very fast – for release in winter.

Converting energy is wasteful

Many forms of renewable energy rely on converting one form of energy into another – this is an inefficient process with losses of up to 90% on converting light into electricity in photovoltaics.

ICAX captures heat as heat, stores heat as heat and releases heat as heat.

Solar energy can be collected without difficulty

Solar energy can be collected in summer using an asphalt solar collector, a pitched roof solar collector or a flat roof solar collector. It can also be collected using standard flat plate collectors or evacuated tube solar thermal collectors in order to provide solar recharge of the ground.

Storing energy is difficult – Solar Recharge

Many forms of energy are difficult to store efficiently: you may need electricity when there is no wind to drive a turbine and no sun to power your photovoltaics. Electricity can be stored in batteries – although storing electricity is not easy or efficient. There are also problems in storing heat – because it will find a way to escape to materials at lower temperatures unless well insulated.

ICAX has developed a mechanism for storing heat efficiently in ThermalBanks™ in the ground: ICAX can store naturally occurring renewable heat energy between day and night – and between seasons. Solar recharge of the ground is a critical component of Interseasonal Heat Transfer.

Computational Fluid Dynamics

Following extended study of heat flow patterns in the ground using Computational Fluid Dynamics, ICAX uses computerised controls to manage the flows of energy captured from the sun, directing it to the ground heat store in summer and to your building when needed. ICAX can also provide pre-heating of water for buildings where there is a high demand for hot water for cooking or washing.

Interseasonal Heat Transfer™

ICAX uses heat pumps to separate warm temperatures into hot and cold when the demand for space heating or water heating is greater than the temperature available directly from its ThermalBanks™. Unlike Ground Source Heat Pumps which are designed to extract heat from cold ground, ICAX actively stores solar energy in the ground when there is surplus in order to extract heat more easily (and more cheaply) when heat is required.

ICAX can also store surplus heat from solar water heating panels (and prevent them overheating) when the available solar energy is higher than required for meeting hot water demand (which is often the case in summer).

Integrating Renewable Technologies

ICAX integrates solar thermal collection in summer with ground source heat pumps to double the performance of a standard ground source heat pump. The vital link is the ThermalBank in which ICAX stores summer heat for use in winter.

See also: Renewable Heating

See also: Renewable Cooling

See also: Banking on IHT

See also: Energy Efficiency in Buildings

See also: Professor David MacKay on Sustainable Energy

See also: Economic Renewable Energy

See also: IHT Systems Design variations

See also: How ground source heat pumps work