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Large-scale ‘sand battery’ goes online in Finland

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Re: Large-scale ‘sand battery’ goes online in Finland

#301

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wood burning ovens for heating in city area should not be allowed, that is just idiotic. The amount of deaths and health issues that is going to cause is really nasty.

Is your claim still true when air filters are installed in the chimney?

Wow, I never knew that chimney air filters existed. I guess I had assumed it would be impractical for a residential size chimney.

Re: Large-scale ‘sand battery’ goes online in Finland

#303
post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You want to do that with the cooler water that is coming back to the power plant after the heat is delivered to the customer. Thus you use lower value heat to melt the streets. Assuming you do combined heat & power, as a bonus you get a small benefit on the power cycle as you get colder water into the pwrturbine cooling.

The sidewalks are actually the tops of tunnels that carry power and steam in both directions.

[deleted]

Re: Large-scale ‘sand battery’ goes online in Finland

#304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which only makes more sense for the New York to be heated by a network of pipes.

A series of tubes, you say?

I never understood why it was so funny. For me it was good first order of approximation of how internet works.

We actually do pipe some stuff around and it flows from one place to another.

Is the series of tubes so hilariously unimaginable for Americans?

Re: Large-scale ‘sand battery’ goes online in Finland

#305
post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah I'd hate having District heating. A friend had this in the past and she couldn't even regulate it. The house was way too hot for her. It would not work for me as I usually have the house around 16 degrees C in winter. Needless to say my energy bill is very low :)

> Yeah I'd hate having District heating. A friend had this in the past and she couldn't even regulate it. Interesting because I could regulate mine after all the radiators were replaced around 20 years ago. And I kind of had to because the workers installing them made a mistake and I got the radiator meant for the living room, so it was grossly oversized for the space it heated. That being said it's usually mandatory…

> That being said it's usually mandatory to keep them at least half-open considering that the heat is shared with other apartments.

Yeah that was kinda the thing. She could technically close it but then the neighbours would complain.

I would hate that as most of the time I use no heating (or cooling) at all. Also, I wouldn't like to pay for it if I don't even use it.

PS: I live in a nicely mild-climated mediterranean coastal city so I can imagine "not using the heater" is not really a done thing if you live in Finland :)

Re: Large-scale ‘sand battery’ goes online in Finland

#306
post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great. How much energy do you spend clearing paths?

It's a fun set of optimisations: to get the path-clearing effect do you run the pipes on less optimal routes (greater capital costs), or do you using varying grades of insulation (less effective under paths to get the clearing effect, more effective on the short-cuts between paths), and so on. I hope Idaho uses these scenarios in their maths lessons, in place of the hoary "the phone company needs to put a line across…

Well the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. Pipe and sidewalk routing have similar objectives and constraints.

Not all sidewalks are heated. It’s more like they paved the top of the service vaults.

I don’t recall this problem specifically but the university employs a lot of students and alums.

Re: Large-scale ‘sand battery’ goes online in Finland

#307
post #278
post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live on a small island in Iceland, too far across the sea to pipe Geothermal water to, so the town heats water electrically and pipes it to homes instead. It's not very efficient, and it is rather expensive. It's kind of interesting because there just aren't hot water heaters for sale here, and Icelandic homes are built with that assumption. I'm on the far side of the island from the plant, and in winter you can ab…

Is that because of heat losses getting to you, or because enough heat is being used to heat the houses that the overall temp is lower?

I would have to imagine heat loss in transit, as it's not a problem anywhere else other than the far side. The plant itself has a lot of waste heat and not boiling too much water is a concern.
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