What are your thoughts (or experiences) with sand batteries? I am always looking for better ways to heat the SkyCastle. Right now we use wood heat, we do have the capability to use propane but generally prefer not to use propane for heat because of the cost. I have been watching YouTube videos about sand batteries, and using them for heat, but so far I haven’t found anyone actually USING one for heating purposes, only people building them for theoretical reasons, maybe just to build for fun or to get clicks/views on YouTube. My thoughts are to go super simple, use a bucket or flat-bottom metal pot, fill it with sand, and put it on the wood stove to heat up, use it as a thermal mass to soak up the heat and slowly release it as the wood stove dies out overnight.
On YouTube, I’ve seen quite a few people using a cook stove top, oven or an electric heating device from a kettle or water heater. I am not interested in going that far. One guy incorporated a rocket stove into a repurposed gas cylinder, it looked like a tall LP gas canister but it said butane on the side. That one looked interesting, but again, that is much more involved than I want to get, I just want to set a pot or something with a flat bottom full of sand on my wood stove. Some of the people I watched on YouTube used metal food cans, even something as small as a large tuna can.
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