I wonder if this tech can be integrated with heat pumps.
Like imagine every building on the block hooked up to a single massive multi-split HVAC system with bidirectional heat pumps and an outdoor unit the size of a house. Sounds pretty solarpunk to me.
Even better, a community ground source heat pump. It can be impractical for a single household to invest in drilling deep wells or digging up a whole yard, but a community together could do so and get serious efficiency improvements from it.
Historically, there have been cases where a single large steam-heat or hot water system served multiple buildings on a corporate or university campus, or even several ciy blocks (I think that was in New York). No reason you couldn’t do the same with a heat pump.
Vancouver has a steam heating system around Gastown, which is what powers the famous steam-powered clock there (at least since they repaired it).
I studied at Rensselaer Polytechnic in New York and they have a campus-wide steam system. There are tunnels below the ground connecting every building. It is somewhat common to see in that region.
I like how Iceland does it.
A plant powered by hydroelectric power pumps volcano-melted steamy glacier water in scalding water pipes (past more lava sometimes, ohai Grindavik!) to homes in an entire village, for hot water and heat, along with electricity.
It’s like their entire economy and survival is based on volcanoes melting glaciers. F’n primal.
We can’t do that here, but it’s a good system if you can get it and nothing melts all your glaciers away.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
As governments look to tackle carbon emissions from buildings — the third largest source in Canada behind the oil and gas industry and transportation — it’s an idea that more of them are considering and implementing.
He added that there are other advantages for customers; they don’t have to worry about heating and cooling equipment — it’s the utility’s problem, and it’s mostly not located in the building itself anymore, freeing up space.
In Europe, there are 6,000 district energy systems serving 100 million people across 32 countries, and they provide at least half of the heating in Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Lithuania and Slovakia, reported W.E.
Toronto lists district energy as a “key component” of its climate action plan, and is building or expanding a number of networks.
And it’s a solution backed by the Canada Infrastructure Bank, which has helped fund upfront costs for systems that include MDE and Lulu Island in Richmond, B.C.
Other networks are being built, upgraded or expanded across the country, including Vancouver, Halifax, Charlottetown, Iqaluit, communities in Yukon and the Northwest Territories.
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