Commuters & other travelers help cut one Stockholm building’s winter heating costs
If you are one of the quarter of a million people passing through Stockholm’s main railroad terminal on an average day, know that in winter, your very presence and movements are helping to cut energy costs of a nearby office building. The BBC reported on an innovative heat exchange system that the innovative, energy-conscious and environmentally astute Swedes have put into practice in the capital.
I learned about this simple, smart, sensible innovation on the Big Picture Agriculture blog, which reports mainly on farming practices as the related to the environment, but occasionally covers other interesting, if distantly related, topics like this.
In most of the US, with its rail service that is pathetic in comparison with Europe, such a project would make no sense. However,it could work in a few places even here — and certainly, it could be a model for other European cities. For instance, in Manhattan’s Grand Central Terminal, which is used by 500,000 people a day, including 125,000 commuters. The excess heat in Stockholm is pumped across the street. In New York, it would just have to be pumped upstairs to the 58-story MetLife Building (the once-upon-a-time Pan Am Building).
In the foreground, the top of the elaborate Beaux Arts Grand Central Terminal. In the background, a portion of the plain-Jane MetLife Building. Excess heat from the former could supplement the energy-hogging system of the latter -- if the Stockholm model were instituted.
Hope someone thinks about it in New York or in other world cities where it could be installed.
