Built in 1871, Stockholm Central Station is the largest train station in the country and in the Nordic region. Around 250,000 persons pass through it every day. It is the heat generated from these visitors that the state owned company, Jernhuset, wants to use for heating the new complex which will include an office building, a hotel and a retail section. How does it work? quite simply, the heat generated will warm up water running through pipes which will be installed in the station. The water will be pumped to the new building and used to heat the spaces inside.
“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,” said Karl Sundholm leader for the new project.
I noticed this the other day – and forgot to post it – until I was reminded by a report on DW-TV.
Cost for the system? 20,000 Euros.
Ah, the slippery slope dilemma. Today they’re recovering human body heat. And then before you know it, we’ll be munching Soylent Green. Just kidding.
But for real. I think they’d get more useful energy from making each person walk on a treadmill for 20 seconds, at the turnstiles to get into the station. It will probably take more energy to suck the heat out of the ceiling tiles, than that heat itself amounts to. They’d be far better off going solar or geothermal. It might work only in the most coldest part of the winter season. But I can’t see that justifying the cost.
These sort of heat collection systems are pretty cheap actually; using a similar set up, you can extract enough heat from 50º earth in the winter to heat your house almost free. The price is what surprised me; graft and no-bid contracts must be out of style in Sweden to do that sort of work for 20k€! I wonder how much this would have cost round these parts?
#2
With a government grant the approx. cost is $9, 456,293.61
#1, My first thought was also “Soylent Green” but my next thought was “The Matrix” people are as batteries!!
#2 $30,000 is pretty damn Cheap really
#3 – you know as much about HVAC as you do about politics.
Not new, but cool anyway.
And you thought just those Swedish women were hot.