Saturday, March 6, 2010
Latent Heat in Sewer Pipes
For the 2010 Vancouver Olympics in the Athletes Village a system of using latent heat in sewer pipes was used. Neighbourhood Energy Utility (NEU) is a low temperature community energy system that brings domestic hot water and space heating to neighbouring buildings by means of heat extraction by heat pumps located at the sewage pump station. With this being the first system ever developed in North America, I plan on incorporating this type of heating into my research report.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Hey Kari, im just curious as to what latent heat extraction is. Is it just a way of taking the heat out of warm water passing through a sewer system and using the recovered heat to warm buildings? Maybe you broaden your research into how this could be used in new housing developments around the world. For example since Sun Rivers already has geo-thermal systems installed why not incorporate this latent heat recovery into the heating system and find out if its part of a viable solution to heating a house.
ReplyDeleteHey Chad, Latent heat is added or removed heat from a source or substance, ie. people, water equipment and outdoor air. Very similar to the concept that Colin is teaching us in physics.
ReplyDeleteLatent heat is used much like the way you stated, I am still working on the details.
The latent heat system in Vancouver covers a subjected community, very similar to a community size like Sun Rivers or possibly bigger. It would definately be worth looking into, espcially for comparison.
Hi Kari,
ReplyDeleteWhat a great concept! I wonder how economically feasible the system is? For example: Would it be cheaper to install a number of PV panels and use electric heat than to harvest the latent heat? This looks like some major costs would be involved. You could even incorporate all kinds of waste heat recovery into your topic if you needed more ideas. Like drain water recovery etc. There seem to be so many. A person could probably do an entire paper on just waste heat recovery. You may have some of this information already, but if not here are some things that I came across.
http://www.journalofcommerce.com/article/id33548/watersewer
http://oee.rncan.gc.ca/publications/infosource/pub/cipec/efficiency/2_17.cfm?attr=20
http://www.empr.gov.bc.ca/RET/RenewableEnergyTechnologies/WER/Pages/default.aspx
http://www.werf.org/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home&CONTENTID=9898&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm
http://www.thechallengeseries.ca/chapter-05/neighbourhood-energy-utility/
If you are going to stick more with the Geothermal idea, I have always wondered what sort of environmental implications there would be for geothermal use in a climate that has an unbalanced heating and cooling loads. Does the ground become super heated or super cooled? What implications does this have for the creatures that live at that depth or the trickle-down effect to the creatures that live on the surface. It sounds like geothermal may have some negative environmental impacts as well. That might be interesting to look at if you were in need of a wider topic.
Would heat recovery from sewers apply to a single residential project or is it more suited to a larger scale development? This question has often been asked of geothermal, but I think it is even more important when talking about sewer pipes which are public property.
ReplyDeleteKari, I think it would be greatly beneficial for you to take a site visit to the athletes village to see the system for yourself. I think it would be quite interesting. With very few in the world and one so close to home, I think you would gain valuable information by making the trip. Were you planning on doing so?
ReplyDeleteHey Emily,
ReplyDeleteYes I was definatly thinking of the possibility of going down to visit the Athletes Village and check out the system. I am just not sure when I will be able to take that trip. It would be amazing and I am definatly going to make it work. For sure!!