Water tank with thermally insulating partition

A liquid storage system comprising:

• a tank configured to hold a liquid therein;
• a heating element disposed within a lower portion of the tank;
• an inlet for receiving unheated liquid into the tank;
• an outlet for outputting heated liquid from the tank;
• a thermal partition located within the tank and configured to divide the tank into an upper portion and the lower portion, the thermal partition having at least one aperture such that the upper portion and the lower portion are in fluid communication with one another, wherein the thermal partition is effective to retard thermal stratification of liquid within the tank;
• a plurality of temperature sensors, wherein each of the plurality of temperature sensors is configured to determine a local liquid temperature of liquid in the tank;
• one or more position sensors configured to determine a position of the thermal partition within the tank;
• a linear actuator operably connected to the thermal partition and configured to linearly displace the thermal partition upwards or downwards within the tank;
• and
• a controller in electrical communication with the actuator,
• wherein the controller is configured to:
• receive, from the plurality of temperature sensors, temperature data indicative of the local liquid temperature corresponding to a location of each temperature sensor of the plurality of temperature sensors;
• compare each local liquid temperature to a threshold temperature;
• determine, based on a plurality of respective heights corresponding to the plurality of temperature sensors, a target partition height that is equal to a lowest height of the plurality of heights that corresponds to a local liquid temperature that is less than the threshold temperature;
• responsive to determining that a current height of the partition does not equal the target partition height, output instructions for moving the partition to a location corresponding to the target partition height.