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Deliver The Water Supply As Elements

What I just said
  (+17)(+17)
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Instead of having pipes going into the house, a lorry pulls up outside and brings in heavily insulated containers with blocks of hydrogen and oxygen ice inside them in the appropriate proportions. You put these in a heavily protected and evacuated chamber and pile them up adjacent to each other, then apply a spark. There is an explosion, providing energy to the house, and the chamber fills with steam which condenses to form water, which you can then use for heating, washing, flushing the toilet, cooking and drinking. When you're done, you store the water, urine and the like in a tank outside the house which is emptied by the company which provided the hydrogen and oxygen ice into a water tanker lorry, which takes it away, distills it, separates it into its component elements and freezes them into blocks, which are then delivered back to you. Obviously you pay for all this.
nineteenthly, Feb 14 2015

Burning diamond in liquid oxygen https://www.youtube...watch?v=0tcP9SLKEG4
[spidermother, Feb 20 2015]

Lavoisier & diamonds - French diamonds http://www.google.c...-burn-637183425/amp
[pertinax, Nov 09 2017]

[link]






       Why not pipe the elements?
pocmloc, Feb 14 2015
  

       Let's assume that you start small on this, with a cube of hydrogen 10cm on a side. This will have a weight of about 80 grams.   

       To go with it, you will need about 700g of solid oxygen, which will be about 8cm on a side.   

       When these react, they will liberate about 100MJ of energy, and they'll give you two large glasses of water.
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 14 2015
  

       No, one large volume of steam, and a violent explosion. [+].   

       Ideal for a "hydrogen economy". Electrolyse water with nuclear or renewable energy. Distribute the hydrogen to consumers. It can be used in CHP units, burnt as heating fuel, fed into fuel cells, or used to fill pretty coloured balloons.
8th of 7, Feb 14 2015
  

       //one large volume of steam, and a violent explosion.//   

       I believe the chamber is intended to act as a pressure vessel. Hence, ultimately, you'll have water.
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 14 2015
  

       Seems fairly pointless, My Dear Sherlock.
popbottle, Feb 14 2015
  

       Perhaps every home should have pipes for each element. Then by selecting an appropriate combination of nozzles, you could create whatever substance you wished for, in an explosion.
pocmloc, Feb 14 2015
  

       Forget the delivery trucks. Can't I just pull hydrogen and oxygen out of the air to make my own water?
tatterdemalion, Feb 14 2015
  

       Oxygen, yes. Hydrogen, no.   

       // you could create whatever substance you wished for, in an explosion. //   

       What could possibly go wrong ?   

       Let us know how that works out for you,
8th of 7, Feb 14 2015
  

       I want delivery. Big refrigerated lorries full of blocks of exotic ice. They could do it with the gas supply too. It does also store energy and move it around, you realise?
nineteenthly, Feb 14 2015
  

       I would like my water delivered as elements. But not oxygen and hydrogen.
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 14 2015
  

       Hydrogen ice? Even Hydrogen liquid would be unlikely. It would be shipped as a highly pressurised gas. That's why you don't see many Hydrogen fuelled vehicles, because Hydrogen is a pain in the arse to compact, except by perhaps combining it with something else, like Oxygen.
Ling, Feb 15 2015
  

       I'm just very attached to the solidity and coldness. I choose to have my water delivered as frozen elemental gases not because it is easy but because it is hard.
nineteenthly, Feb 15 2015
  

       //one large volume of steam, and a violent explosion.// As long as the reactants are solid, I would think it would be quite difficult to generate much of an explosion.
lurch, Feb 15 2015
  

       tsk, I waited around all day, nipped out for a pint of milk, get back and there's a card on the mat saying I should wait 24 hours and collect from the post office.
po, Feb 15 2015
  

       explosions and silliness [+]
Voice, Feb 15 2015
  

       It should be possible, with suitable fusion technology, to just deliver the hydrogen.
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 15 2015
  

       Add fission to save on deliveries.
pocmloc, Feb 15 2015
  

       Depends if they ship by weight or volume.
MaxwellBuchanan, Feb 15 2015
  

       This seems a wee bit complicated. I may not be able to do this.
blissmiss, Feb 15 2015
  

       Can I have mine with extra French Carbon Dioxide, please? {I'll taste the difference if it's English!}
Dub, Feb 15 2015
  

       // French Carbon Dioxide //   

       Certainly, if you are desirous of a lingering oudour of Gauloise, garlic, defective drains, institutionalise corruption, and endemic cowardice …   

       English Carbon Dioxide has the unmistakeable odour of upstanding righteousness and courage, inedible school dinners, honesty, stiff upper lips, rum, sodomy and the lash … *   

       * Check the box for "Public School" for the inedible school dinners and, err, the other options.
8th of 7, Feb 15 2015
  

       Hi [Dub], want a drink. Very long time no see. Yay. Hi.
blissmiss, Feb 15 2015
  

       You could provide carbon dioxide by just adding diamonds to the oxygen.
nineteenthly, Feb 16 2015
  

       Hiya, [blissy] :P) Yes, please. {Offers the wrong glass.}
French diamonds, right?
Dub, Feb 16 2015
  

       What's not to like about this?   

       Apart for the 118 pipes that would be needed.   

       And how could you be sure the utility company is really putting in hahnium at their end? They could be putting any old crap like Lawrencium in there and just saying "Oh, it must have decayed on the way"   

       If you're just going to stick to boring old hydrogen and oxygen, you could add entertainment value by running them through a pipe organ afore the combustion
not_morrison_rm, Feb 17 2015
  

       When I read this idea and the annos I thought; couldn't hydrogen be delivered in solid form through insulated vacuum pipes and then, as it sublimates, be burnt in the presence of atmospheric oxygen to produce water as a by-product of combustion?   

       I can't find any information about the burn rates of solid hydrogen... in fact there seems to be an awful lot of things not known about solid hydrogen.   

       I don't understand, is solid hydrogen not an ice like solid carbon dioxide?   

       [2 fries..] Environment.
wjt, Feb 19 2015
  

       Supposedly piping gaseous hydrogen is pretty tricky. Not sure where I read that, but there was some article about hydrogen powered cars talking about how the seemingly simple idea of having a compressed hydrogen tank with tubes to the car like a standard gas station is pretty impractical at this point.   

       Not sure: A) where I read that B) if it's true C) if I dreamt it. If it was a dream I need to start having more interesting dreams.
doctorremulac3, Feb 19 2015
  

       "Not sure: A) where I read that B) if it's true C) if I dreamt it. If it was a dream I need to start having more interesting dreams."   

       I'd like to bun that anno.
dentworth, Feb 19 2015
  

       I've long found it a little puzzling that except for mercury, everything whose triple point is colder than that of water seems to be an ice. Some things hotter than ice also seem to be ices, e.g. quartz, but it just seems a bit of a coincidence. I suppose it's because water is peculiar due to the polar thing.
nineteenthly, Feb 20 2015
  

       Under enough pressure Hydrogen turns into a super conductive liquid metal even at room temperature? What?!!   

       How friggin awesome is that?   

       I can see it becoming reality that people will use their fuel cell cars to generate electricity for their home during network peak hours. But keep in mind that it will always be less efficient than a big optimized electricity plant.
sdk16420, Feb 21 2015
  

       This is the best idea I ever heard (in this moment)... OK, I'm over it now. Well Done, [nineteenthly], zee beeg bun I have for you [+]. (Don't bake it all in one place)
Grogster, Feb 21 2015
  

       Thanks.
nineteenthly, Feb 21 2015
  

       // How friggin awesome is that? //   

       You should see some of the party tricks you can do with the stuff, particularly liquid metallic Deuterium ... oh, how we laughed.
8th of 7, Feb 21 2015
  

       Perhaps, instead of working on solid adsorbents for fuel-cell vehicle tanks, they should try liquids - run it into your house (or car), heat to a certain temperature to release the H2, send the empty working fluid back.
FlyingToaster, Nov 08 2017
  

       //There is an explosion, providing energy to the house [...]//   

       Guy Fawkes: "I was just providing energy to the House!"   

       That reminds me, what are the theoretical objections to magnetically decelerating shrapnel, and then using the recovered energy to recharge your phone?
pertinax, Nov 08 2017
  

       //I'm just very attached to the solidity and coldness. I choose to have my water delivered as frozen elemental gases not because it is easy but because it is hard.//   

       Melting temperature of hydrogen : -259.16 °C   

       It's doable, it's just not easy.
Absolute zero is only around -273 °C.
Interestingly, the boiling point is -252.879 °C, so it's only liquid for 6.3 degrees at standard pressure.
  

       How much energy is there? Using Max's value of 100MJ, that would be enough to boil - that is, raise the temperature of liquid water from 20 °C to 100 °C : (100,000,000/ (80*4.2*1000))= about 300 litres of water.
Loris, Nov 08 2017
  

       // what are the theoretical objections to magnetically decelerating shrapnel, //   

       You would need a very large linear motor with a very intense field. It would also need to be correctly aligned to the path of the projectiles to be effective. You would need superconducting magnets, refrigeration plant, and a suitable suppy of electrical energy. The equipment will not be portable in any meaningful sense.   

       // and then using the recovered energy to recharge your phone? //   

       There are probably more cost-effective ways of doing that, like using a tiny steam engine made of solid platinum, fuelled by burning cut diamonds and using vintage burgundy as the working fluid.
8th of 7, Nov 08 2017
  

       Yes, I think it would form as superheated steam, but that's a plus because the heat from that can then be used to warm the house or maybe run a steam turbine.   

       And, well, it was me who thought of the rose absolute powered internal combustion engine so I'm at peace with financially expensive energy generation.
nineteenthly, Nov 08 2017
  

       I think this is a good opportunity for "Cut-me-own-throat" Dibler to supply a DIY kit.   

       Hand crafted by Monks, this device gives you access to Hygrogen and Oxegene in large quantities, and it only weighs a few Ankh Morpork bacon and sausage sandwiches. Not only that, the Hygrogen and Oxegene are copiously available after a good testing of the local ale houses. One end of the string is tied to a bucket full of piss..er water...and the other end is attached to a kite. A thunderstorm makes it work even better, or I'll cut me own throat. Stand well back.
Ling, Nov 09 2017
  

       //fuelled by burning cut diamonds //   

       Ah, now that would be the Mark II Lavoisier Engine (see link). I'd heard you had a few of those on your hands after Buchanan Towers sent theirs back because it didn't match the curtains of the south-west groyne. But that might just be a rumour put out by a rival in this brutally competitive business.
pertinax, Nov 09 2017
  

       Of course, what Lavoisier needed was a device to magnetically decelerate the falling blade of a guillotine, to provide just enough juice to send a text to his friend Benjamin Franklin. A tricoteuse selfie would be attached.
pertinax, Nov 09 2017
  

       // Dibler //   

       Sp. "Dibbler"   

       // But that might just be a rumour //   

       We had just one returned as "faulty". A better description would be "damaged by gross misuse" - it wasn't eligible for repair under warranty ...
8th of 7, Nov 09 2017
  

       // Dibler //  Sp. "Dibbler"     

       Could I get away with it if I said I used the American spelling?
Ling, Nov 10 2017
  

       No.   

       You could get away with "al-D'blah", or "Disembowel-myself -honorably..." but not "Dibler".
8th of 7, Nov 10 2017
  

       I've just realised this is the opposite of Thales' idea of delivering the element supply as water.
pertinax, Nov 15 2017
  

       //A tricoteuse selfie//   

       That's pretty warped.
...and more than a little bit weft.
  
      
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