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89 Comments
- blazes816, on 01/14/2008, -3/+73They could cut down on people used by setting every 20th person on fire.
- Mustala, on 01/14/2008, -3/+68i'm pretty sure this is how the matrix began
- marvinmatthew, on 01/14/2008, -0/+19"He said the body heat would warm up water that in turn would be pumped through pipes over to the new office building"
I've gotta be honest here and say that it would be nice if they we're to be a bit more specific (or at least more specific than 'the body heat would warm up water'). This seems like an inefficient system.
Firstly, I would think that human body heat (even the heat from thousands of people) would be difficult to concentrate around these pipes. Even putting the pipes in a high location (following the concept that heat tends to rise to the top of an enclosed area), would only heat the pipes by two or three degrees. Not to mention that the room in which the pipes are located would have to be pretty warm.
Secondly, it would take quiet a substantial amount of energy to pump the water around this new building. It seems to me that the cost of the electricity to power the pumps to move the water around would come close to equaling the cost of the natural gas that you would need to provide the extra heat for the new building.
I think that it would be more interesting to see the warm water in the pipes harnessed with a turbine and a generator, and used to create power.
All of that being said, I'm sure the engineers have thought all of this out. I just wish that the article wasn't so vague. When I first read the stories description, these were the first questions that popped into my head. I'm digging it for being an interesting concept. - WillyF, on 01/14/2008, -2/+21Just think how much carbon these people are emitting! Methane too!
- ChileanGoD, on 01/14/2008, -1/+18Is it allowed to rub against some Swedish girls?.. You know.. anything to help the energy cause.
- iPissExcellence, on 01/14/2008, -1/+16are you speaking in past tense about the future?
- tehAleksandrRox, on 01/14/2008, -3/+15Porno sets have been using it for years.
- dinostabOMG, on 01/14/2008, -1/+11I wish this article were more detailed. How are they going to get the heat from the people into "the building?" If the people are already in there, this won't create any new heat (unless they can somehow make the people do more work than they normally would). In fact, to move the heat around they are going to have to make people directly cold by removing the heat from their bodies! I don't see how this could be a good idea. Maybe it is, and I'm missing something, but I wish the article would address it.
- inactive, on 01/14/2008, -0/+9So basically, they just don't turn on the heat at Mall of America. I wouldn't quite consider this to be cutting edge technology. Maybe the building is well insulated, poorly ventilated, and collects solar heat relatively efficiently, but the people just aren't going to produce that much heat.
- has2k1, on 01/14/2008, -2/+11If you follow the link in the article, the most interesting statistic is that it would cost $31,200 to provide 20% of the power for the multi-million dollar building. That is brilliant.
- KingGorilla, on 01/14/2008, -0/+9Yes but that's wind power
- isewise, on 01/14/2008, -1/+10Be quiet coppertop and get to work on time for once.
- bidentification, on 01/14/2008, -1/+9They do that same thing here in Minnesota at the Mall of America. No heat, it's all generated from the body heat of the visitors.
- inactive, on 01/14/2008, -1/+9I emitted more methane as I was reading this post.
- stoanhart, on 01/14/2008, -0/+7I agree with Linkage. Something seems wrong here. If you have a train station in the winter and you don't heat it, it gets very cold. That indicates that the people in the train station do not provide enough body heat to warm the station. So, to keep that train station warm, you must add heat on top of the body heat using some other source.
Now, they are running pipes all over the train station that will collect that heat and pump it to a different building. So really, the new building which they are heating with "people heat" is really just stealing heat from the train station, which is most likely being heated by more than just body heat. - tehAleksandrRox, on 01/14/2008, -0/+6Don't give into him!
- inactive, on 01/14/2008, -7/+13O'Reilly could power a city.
- K31TH3R, on 01/14/2008, -1/+6Warning: If a fart joke goes over your head, the internet may not be the place for you.
- GeneralKickass, on 01/14/2008, -0/+5Sure could use some of those Swede chicks to heat my building.
- VinceNoir, on 01/14/2008, -0/+5Ever heard of a joke? How sad and pathetic is YOUR life if you can't see the humor in little light joke. I'm sure you've laughed at more than one joke about Bill Clinton's penis in arenas where there was no relevance. Lighten up a little. Humor is good for the soul. (And no snarky comments claiming it wasn't funny. You know it was funny unless you're an O'Reilly/Fox supporting tool) God, sometimes you Fox/O'Reilly backers are worse than the Linux and Windows zealots around here. Seriously man, chill.
- Murdats, on 01/14/2008, -1/+6are you sure its anti-fox?
maybe he thinks they can generate power from his luminescent brilliance. - EserVerx, on 01/14/2008, -0/+5That train station is going to smell like ass.
- artanis, on 01/14/2008, -0/+5O'reilly is a full of hot air. Get it yet?
- bg2500, on 01/14/2008, -0/+4The Mall of America uses body heat also. In fact, even in cold Minnesota winters they have to run air conditioners to keep the place comfortable.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mall_of_America#Desig ... - VinceNoir, on 01/14/2008, -0/+4Nooooo!!!! +1 to you a million times!!!
- angrycat, on 01/14/2008, -0/+3Imagine how much energy you could get out of a box full of kittens.
- jasdf, on 01/14/2008, -0/+3I believe the lighting makes up a larger percentage than the people.
- pingudownunder, on 01/14/2008, -0/+3Given how hot Swedish girls are, i'm not surprised ...
- gkrat, on 01/14/2008, -0/+3I heat my apartment with computers, i have never turned on my furnace and i live in omaha (VERY cold winters, hot summers).
When the heat was uneven i simply moved a file server into the other room :D
Granted i pay up the ass in teh summer for cooling, but not as bad as it would be if i didn't start turning off the un used systems come march :D - marvinmatthew, on 01/14/2008, -0/+2But in this case, the heat from one building is being used/harnessed to heat another building.
It's a little different. - inactive, on 01/15/2008, -0/+2It was a joke, you stupid ***** idiot.
- Zapkiller, on 01/14/2008, -0/+2No, because it has already been done :o
- tomisina, on 01/14/2008, -0/+2pshhh this is old. i've tried to use my body heat to heat my room for years.... i save on gas, but it's ***** freezing
- Linkage155, on 01/14/2008, -1/+3Looks like they are simply moving the heat already created from one building to the other using heated water.
- ibookfast, on 01/14/2008, -0/+2"During the frigid northern winters, Mall visitors and miles of interior lighting produce enough warmth to keep the entire structure efficiently warm without the need for heating." from here: http://www.travelsearcher.com/features/mall.html
- inactive, on 01/14/2008, -0/+2Hope they will keep the air-conditioning to get rid of the B.O
- SuperMoses, on 01/14/2008, -0/+2It's carbon that would be emitted regardless, why not use it.
- Gondolieri, on 01/14/2008, -0/+2I believe they're using the heat _from_ the train station to heat a nearby complex
"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." - orjan, on 01/14/2008, -0/+2In response to those asking for specifics on how they're going to do it:
they will use heat pumps [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heat_pump]. A heat pump is essentially an inversed refrigerator. Instead of producing cooling, it produces heat.
(Found out about the heat pumps from the Swedish Radio's website [http://mobil.sr.se/site/index.aspx?offset=8&artike ...
Sorry, Swedish only.) - Zera, on 01/14/2008, -0/+2This is nothing new at all. All large buildings being built take into account how many people will be in the building, and on what schedule, and then compute roughly 70 watts of heat per person, and take that into account, not only for heating, but for air conditioning as well.
- oo7b0nds, on 01/14/2008, -1/+3Done.
- rollem, on 01/15/2008, -0/+1Exactly, there's enough heat in one section, so they're moving it to another.
- marvinmatthew, on 01/14/2008, -0/+1At the end of my comment I state 'I'm sure the engineers have thought all of this out'.
I'm sure they know what they're doing, my point here is that it would be nice if they just explain it. - Ramble, on 01/14/2008, -0/+1It's about 30C for everywhere over your body (probably hotter actually).
- torontoliam, on 01/14/2008, -0/+1Not exactly because insulating a building would mean that the human heat would help heat that particular building. This is using the human heat to heat another separate building. But you still have to wonder why they are doing this when they probably still have to heat the train station. Train stations tend to be drafty because the "piston effect" (trains pushing large volumes of air through tunnels).
- Kerath, on 01/14/2008, -1/+2I'm 90% whoever wrote this article misunderstands what they're doing.
- courtjester555, on 01/14/2008, -1/+2[citation needed]
- Zapkiller, on 01/14/2008, -0/+1My thoughts exactly.
- charlietuna, on 01/14/2008, -0/+1Isn't this the same as insulating a building very very well?
- torontoliam, on 01/14/2008, -0/+1A schematic/diagram showing hot water, cold water and direction of flow would have been really helpful.
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