jay@npois.UUCP (Anton Winteroak) (02/27/85)
While I can't give numbers for efficiency, I can tell you that even on earth we use thermal reservoirs. Typically they are large bags (10**6 gallons) of water that are surrounded by insulation, and kept under dirt, and a playground. They are used in the Northeastern US to heat schools during the winter. The water is made hot during the summer using water heating solar panels. The same basic concept should be usable on the moon, though I imagine that a substance other than water would be used there. Sodium might be best, if we can find any up there. (Most of the surface samples from the moon were pretty low in sodium). Also some more intense way of heating the reservoir would be needed. As was pointed out earlier on this net, there are ways to convert this heat to electricity. I suppose, that it might be heated with the waste energy from the refining of the aluminum and titanium. My image of how such an operation might run, is that energy intensive things would be done during the daylight, and set up, and take down would be done at night. I haven't really thought it through, but we have time.