How big of a thermal battery (assume we are freezing water) would you need to store the cooling capacity of a 5 ton HVAC system running for 1 summer day?
Perhaps we could design a new generation of heat pumps with this approach in mind.
In Texas, we used to have residential plans where you payed wholesale rates for electricity (e.g. Griddy). I used to be on one of these plans and would constantly fantasize about being able to accumulate HVAC capacity at night when you would sometimes be paid to consume electricity.
(I do believe that switching to variable rates would be a good idea, that in even the poorest of the poor would the grand scheme of things be better off if they had to occasionally disconnect, less bad than if the alternative was the entire grid occasionally browning out, including services that might be more important to them than their home consumption. And peak prices would even be as high as they are now, if they weren't propped up by an army of fixed rate consumers who don't show any have of demand flexibility almost be definition)
Completely agree. Any time we try to control/subsidize costs we introduce instabilities and bad incentives into the marketplace.
Texas grid was about as close as you could get to reality for a while. I would much prefer a situation where everyone is impacted by the cost in the same way. At grid scale, nothing can be stored, so financial arbitrage is effectively a scam.
Run your A/C overnight when power is cheaper and the air conditioner is more efficient (and rolling blackouts are less likely...). Cool your house to say 4-8F cooler than you'd normally keep it (close off some vents in your bedroom if you need to, though personally I prefer sleeping in the cold). If your house is well insulated you may be able to make it through a significant portion of the next day without the air conditioner needing to cut in again.
In the grand scheme of things wood doesn't have a lot of thermal mass, but if there's a lot of it it still adds up. Even as the air begins to warm, the floor and walls still feel noticeably cooler.