Welcome to the Matrix in Stockholm Central Station
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 01. 4.08
Morpheus showed us how effective the human body is at generating energy; now the Swedes are making it happen. So many people pass through the Stockholm Central Station each day, moving quickly and generating heat, that they are going to capture it and use it to heat a new office building nearby. According to Physorg: "We want to harness some of the warmth they produce to help heat the new building," said Karl Sundholm, of the Swedish state-held property administration company Jernhuset.
"All people produce heat, and that heat is in fact fairly difficult to get rid of. Instead of opening windows and letting all that heat go to waste we want to harness it through the ventilation system," Sundholm said.
He said the body heat would warm up water that in turn would be pumped through pipes over to the new office building, which will also house a small hotel and a few shops and is expected to be completed by the beginning of 2010.
"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," he said, adding that Jernhuset expects the system to bring down heating costs in the building by up to 20 percent. ::Physorg
i think it's a great idea, anything that will save energy and help reduce pollotion is OK by me.
i hope though they do have an alternative plan, i mean- what will they do on weeknend or holidays, when ther aren't as many people passing as usual?
(Kind of ironically) the US's biggest mall, The Mall of America, also uses this technology. Located in Minnesota, it keeps warm during the cold winters by utilizing the heat generated by the masses of people flowing through it.