A Next Generation Approach to Heating and Cooling Buildings
A Next Generation Approach to Heating and Cooling Buildings
A fifth-generation network at the Bankside Yards project in London offers new possibilities for the pace of decarbonization in the United Kingdom and elsewhere.
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Bankside Yards is using a “fifth-generation” combined heating and cooling network that can balance energy within each building and then between buildings by collecting unwanted heat, say from a refrigerator in a restaurant or a piece of office equipment that needs to be cooled, and carrying that heat to somewhere that needs hot water or domestic heating.
Electric-powered heat pumps on building rooftops and in each apartment or commercial space then adjust the temperature of the water by withdrawing or injecting heat into the pipes to provide the heating, cooling and hot water needed in each place.
Makes sense, especially when you have a mixed use complex - a shop may run a large refrigerator and you could use the extracted heat in homes.
A friend installed air conditioning at an air force base to cool down the supercomputers running the fighter jets and I presume that heat was just vented out, where you could make use of it to heat barracks and offices.
Presumably this adds more cost and complexity to buying and installing appliances though if they have to integrate into these systems, which I’m guessing aren’t currently well standardised.
It’s an interesting idea nonetheless. I’ve heard of other projects using excess heat from large data centres to provide energy for district heating systems.