CONCEPT STUDIES

Concept Lab

Grounded engineering concepts for systems that don’t quite exist yet. Each study separates what’s proven, what’s theoretical integration, the real numbers, and the obstacles between an idea and a product.

What Concept Lab is: speculative engineering studies, clearly labeled and kept separate from our verified build guides. The components are real and the math is checked; the fully integrated products described are not yet things you can buy off a shelf.

The Solar Thermal Router concept: one solar AC cooling a house while heating water, drying clothes, and warming a pool
CONCEPT STUDY

The Solar Thermal Router

Could one solar-powered AC cool the house while heating the water, drying clothes, and warming the pool? A five-ton AC dumps 20+ kW of heat while it runs. We ran the numbers on catching it instead of throwing it outside.

Read the study →
IN THE LAB

The House as a Thermal Battery

Using the building’s own mass, water tanks, and phase-change materials to shift heating and cooling loads off peak — how much storage actually hides in an ordinary house?

Coming soon
IN THE LAB

The Direct-DC Home

What if the panels, batteries, and biggest loads never converted to AC at all? Counting up the conversion losses a fully DC house would skip.

Coming soon
IN THE LAB

Seasonal Heat Storage

Storing summer heat until winter. The physics that makes it possible and the volume problem that makes it hard.

Coming soon

Have a concept you want run through the numbers? Send it over.