Water is often used as a heat storage medium, particularly in solarenergy system

Question

Water is often used as a heat storage medium, particularly in solarenergy systems.
(a) Does it perform that function extremely well for somereason, or is it used just because it is easily obtained?
(b) What properties of water make it suitable, and what singleproperty is most important in determining the answer to thisquestion?
(c) How unique is water with respect to this property?
(a) Does it perform that function extremely well for somereason, or is it used just because it is easily obtained?
(b) What properties of water make it suitable, and what singleproperty is most important in determining the answer to thisquestion?
(c) How unique is water with respect to this property?

Explanation / Answer

Part A) water has a high specific heat. Part B) It is more efficient to store energy/heat at lower temperatures,thus materials with high specific heats, such as water, areideal. Part C) here is a link to a tableand you can see that water has a much higher specific heat thanmost metals. there are materials with higher specific heats,but water is easily attainable and much better than basicmetals.

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