Heat reservoir

This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/004, 695 filed Nov. 30, 2007 entitled Heat Reservoir.

This invention relates to heat reservoirs, and in particular heat reservoir construction used in solar collection systems.

It is known that when making a heat reservoir primarily for use in solar heating applications that a supporting structure lined with a fluid impermeable material may be a cost effective method of construction. There are many instances of lined pressure vessels, but few instances of lined atmospheric pressure heat reservoirs.

In the prior art to applicant\'s knowledge applicant is aware of U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,602 entitled “Knock-down Heat Storage Tank” which issued to Frederick, et al. on Feb. 9, 1982, and teaches a knock-down tank for containing a liquid medium, the tank is disassemblable rigid container having a bottom panel, an inner wall, separate upright side-wall panels with inner walls resting on the bottom panel and having abutting side, and having a top panel overlying the side-wall panels thus closing the container. The container is snugly fitted with a liquid-containing flexible liner having side walls fitting snuggly within said side panels and having a bottom wall supported by said bottom panel. The walls of the liner lie against sheets of insulating material. A dip tube extends down into the liner through a hole in the top panel, thereby providing access to the liquid in the container.

The present invention serves as a heat reservoir for liquids such as water used in heat transfer applications such as solar collection. The reservoir is cost effective to manufacture, consisting in one embodiment of sheet metal wrapped and joined to form an open ended cylinder placed on an insulating base. The cylinder is lined with a fluid tight membrane on the inside such as EPDM roofing rubber sheet (or other flexible mater tight sheet), and insulated on the outside. The lid is similarly constructed with a vapor barrier sheet of fluid tight membrane, a lid made of support material covered with insulation. The egress for the fluid circulation lines and the heat pump transfer lines is through a section of the upper rim of the cylindrical tank and the lid. The fluid tight membrane is a sheet bonded into a cylindrical section formed, prior to lifting with fluid, in the form of a frusto-conical upper portion and a wedge-shape lower portion. The bottom seam is reinforced by a clamp to ensure a water tight seal.

In summary, the non-pressurized fluid reservoir according to one aspect of the present invention includes a housing shell defining a cavity, and a flexible water impervious bag-shaped liner mounted in the cavity so as to substantially fill the cavity when the liner is filled with fluid. The liner is formed from a flexible water-imperious sheet by forming the sheet into a cylinder, then forming a water-tight first seam along a bottom edge of the cylinder, then folding outer corners of the first seam over, so as to overlap a center portion of the first seam, and so that bottom edges of the outer corners, once so folded over, register substantially co-linearly within a bottom edge of the center portion of the first seam. An upper portion of the liner is thereby urged to bag open. The upper portion thus forms a substantially frustoconical shape. The upper portion is contiguous with a lower portion of the liner. The lower is portion substantially wedge shaped. The bottom corners overlapping the center portion of the first seam are sealed onto the first seam so as to form a second seal. The liner may be resilient.

In one embodiment the sheet is formed into the cylinder by sealing opposite ends of the sheet to one another along a third seam once the sheet has been curled into a cylindrical shape. The housing shell may also be substantially cylindrical, and may be sized so that the upper portion of the liner fits snugly inside the cavity of the shell.

In use the lower portion of the liner folds under the upper portion of the liner when the liner is mounted in the cavity. When mounted in the cavity an upper edge of the liner registers with an upper rim of the housing shell. The rim extends around an upper opening into the cavity.

The lower portion of the liner folds under the upper portion to form a floor surface of the liner and to flatten the floor surface of the liner down against a substantially horizontal supporting surface under said housing shell. In one embodiment, the housing shell is open-bottomed, and the supporting surface is a separate insulated platform surface, separate from the shell. When fluid fills the liner in the cavity, the floor surface of the liner spreads out substantially to meet wall or walls of the shell.

In one embodiment, the upper edge of the liner is foldable or folded over to form a lip. The rim of the housing shell may also further include a radially spaced apart array of liner-engaging protrusions to engage and lock to the folded-over lip.

The liner may further include a clamp. The clamp is clamped over said bottom corners and the center portion of the first seam when abutting together of bottom corners over the center portion of the first seam.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

In the accompanying figures wherein similar characters of reference denote corresponding parts in each view:

FIG. 1 is, in front elevation view, the assembled heat reservoir of the present invention.

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