Roomba Radiator roves around your home sensing out cold spots with its temperature gauges. When it finds one, it switches on its built in radiator, then delivers jets of heated air via sets of directional nozzles.
It periodically switches off the heater then moves around a little to see if the local region's ambient temperature has increased sufficiently enough to allow it to begin searching for another cold spot.
Systematically recharges its storage batteries by plugging itself in to the mains.
De-lux version can also sniff out and quell nasty odours then deliver a range of scented smells, using the same principle.-- xenzag, Apr 20 2014 stalking_20heat See anotation by [Aristotle], Feb 18 2010 [pocmloc, Apr 21 2014] [Matthias Wandel] built something like this https://www.youtube...watch?v=6kK3xF1REHoIt doesn't drive around, but it does track people in the room and aim the heater at them. [notexactly, Mar 24 2019] Another one like the above link https://www.instruc...ike-Radiant-Heater/It's built around a bike frame, but still [edit: DOESN'T] drive around the house [notexactly, Mar 24 2019, last modified Mar 28 2019] If it followed you around, you wouldn't need to heat the house. All the more so if it could reconfigure itself into a comfy chair when necessary.
Once a week it would be necessary to use all the old radiators you recover from the old system to overheat the bathroom.
The only other adaptation I can think of would be that your toilet seat would need a built-in heating element.-- skoomphemph, Apr 20 2014 Something about this idea reeks of fire hazard, don't you think?-- blissmiss, Apr 20 2014 fire hazard [+]-- Voice, Apr 20 2014 Can't see it as a fire hazard.... just eliminates cold spots with a bit of hot air.-- xenzag, Apr 20 2014 Alright then, Roombas for all the cold rooms.-- blissmiss, Apr 20 2014 What [Voice] said [+].
Batteries have far too low an energy density to deliver a useful amount of heat, particularly for space heating. A liquid fuel system for easy recharging would be better- for preference, something hypergolic, that won't boost humidity or release too much CO. Nitrogen as the exhaust would be good …-- 8th of 7, Apr 20 2014 Ha - there are cars running on batteries now..... so the Roomba Radiator should be able to last a while before needing to plug itself in again. I have great faith in my new Roomba friend. He could be like Henry my faithful vacuum cleaner, except Roomba Radiator probably looks like a friendly dragon with a hot breath and a wagging tail.-- xenzag, Apr 20 2014 As far as the heating goes, Roomba could occassionally plug into the electrical socket and remelt the salt that is starting to crystalise in the molten salt heat sink. That way all the batteries have to do is move the Roomba around.
If you go with the cheapskate option that just heats the person instead of heating the space, you'd need two Roombas that change shifts every now and again.
Actually with molten salt heat storage, the Roomba could get into the shower with you, and you wouldn't have to occasionally heat up the bathroom air.
Your guests would have to endure some discomfort, and your pets would have to stay right by your side. There would also be some drafts to enjoy the freshness of.-- skoomphemph, Apr 21 2014 Yes, because nobody has ever had problems with pressurized liquid sodium before.-- Alterother, Apr 24 2014 Oblique reference to the Soviet nuclear submarine program--they used liquid sodium instead of water because they could crank more immediate power out of the reactors (I am not at all clear on the technical details), and it caused them no end of hilariously fatal problems.-- Alterother, Apr 24 2014 If molten salt escaped, things would burn. If the Roomba carried fuel and it leaked, catastrophe would not be guaranteed, so I suppose that's enough to tip the safety factor favourably in the direction of the gas tank.
(Likelihood would matter less than the best-disaster-scenario? - I think so.)
Imagine the fortune you could make selling "stalker heaters" that look like Daleks.-- skoomphemph, Apr 24 2014 Yeah, they had fires, immolations, radiation leaks, radioactive liquid sodium leaks that caused fires and immolations...fun times.-- Alterother, Apr 24 2014 At least molten salt wouldn't be reactive, itself (like sodium or NAK <-- ? ).
Actually the very high temperatures at the molten phase could be offset by jacketing with water? (Out-of-depth-error is registering on my processor). A small quantity of very hot salt, in a less small quantity of water, adds up to lots of steam, but maybe no fires. You just need to get below the activation energy for the reagents, carpet and oxygen. Maybe it's necessary to go too far below 800 C?
I suppose before one even gets there, one has to make sure not to melt the container the salt is in.
The reason for the salt is its extremely high specific heat capacity, so I suppose another thing to find out is whether the solid phase has this property. If so, why melt it? (Apart from energy density).
Any takers for some very hot Lithium salts patrolling the house?
(Or lets forget the salts and trundle around loaded with hot Cesium. I hear you don't need a radiator, even with cold liquid Cesium.)-- skoomphemph, Apr 24 2014 Use wireless power transmission and everything will be toasty.-- wjt, Apr 25 2014 Maybe an alloy of Caesium and Plutonium would give you a warmer version of NaK? (See how I cunningly wormed my way around two spelling errors of the kind I heartily disapprove of ... or did I mean to say "heartlessly disprove" ? ... I forget now ...)-- skoomphemph, Apr 25 2014 Molten salt remote-control robots equipped with easily programmable circuit boards... what could possibly go wrong?-- RayfordSteele, Apr 25 2014 [+]
I would also consider radiant heating, and thermal vision.
// (Likelihood would matter less than the best-disaster- scenario? - I think so.) //
For consumer acceptance, yes.
// Imagine the fortune you could make selling "stalker heaters" that look like Daleks. //
EN-THERM-IN-ATE!-- notexactly, Mar 07 2019 This is all incredibly inefficient. What is the purpose of warming a room? Presumably, to make the occupants feel warmer. Ergo, a robot with a powerful directable microwave transmitter could achieve the same result for far less power.-- MaxwellBuchanan, Mar 07 2019 Ah yes, but that's not much help to the 8 foot tall cactus in my sun room, or next door's cats who live permanently on a special fleece blanket in the roof space, or for drying out whatever project I'm doing that needs to be dried out. Warm air also deters condensation, and there's nothing quite like it around the bare feet on a chilly day.-- xenzag, Mar 08 2019 [+] A warm breakfast bar croissant-- wjt, Mar 08 2019 //something hypergolic//
You’re thinking of a Doomba.-- AusCan531, Mar 09 2019 That's the roomba coffin.-- xenzag, Mar 09 2019 random, halfbakery