Sweden to Harness Body Heat of Commuters
It was only last year that I began to fully appreciate the concept of incidental heat gains within buildings - heat gained indirectly via a window facing the sun, the heat generated from electrical appliances and rather surprisingly, the heat generated from our own bodies.
I thought the latter would be insignificant. Not a bit of it.
In fact, whilst sitting down, we provide the same amount of heat as a 60 watt light bulb. This can increase to 250 watts depending on the type of exercise we are doing.
Which is why I’m so pleased to have come across this recent story that wings its way over from Stockholm, Sweden where planners have decided to harness the body heat of commuters passing through the city’s railway station. (See photo above.)
According to Reuters:
The body heat of 250,000 commuters passing through the central train station in Stockholm every day is to be channelled into a new office block, where it will supply 15 per cent of the heating.
Karl Sundholm, of the property administration company Jernhuset, said in The Local: “So many people go through the Central Station. We want to harness some of the warmth they produce to help heat the new building.”
He added that it was in fact quite difficult to get rid of the heat generated by the passengers and that, rather than opening windows to allow the heat to escape, why not capture the heat and put it to good use?
Reading through the reports on this story, this stands out as exceptionally positive because old technology is being put to a new use. All that is required are pipes, water and pumps, yet, according to Mr Sundholm, they have never before been used in this way.
Couple this with the fact that the whole project is predicted to cost around $31,000 - incredibly cheap considering - and one realises what an exciting technological breakthrough this could prove to be.
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This isn’t anything new. The Mall of America near Minneapolis, Minnesota is heated on the very same principle.
Topher, thanks for that. Mr Sundholm in The Local is quoted as saying:
“This is old technology, but used in a new way. It’s just pipes, water and pumps, but we haven’t heard of anyone else using this technology in this way before.”
A quick search revealed the following on Wikipedia regarding the Mall of America:
Heat is produced by lighting fixtures, other electric devices and also by employees and guests of the mall in sufficient amounts to keep it comfortable.
An enlightening comment and I stand corrected.
We need more stories such as this Stockholm one and as you rightly say, the Mall of America one. Such a clever, yet simple, use of incidental heat gain.
The novelty is actually piping that heat to use elsewhere.
Many malls use the same concept for heating but that is simply trapping the heat in the same place. So I do think the Swedish application is quite new.