STOCKHOLM (AFP) - The heat generated by the thousands of people passing through Stockholm central station every day will be used to partially heat a new building nearby, project officials said on Wednesday.
"So many people are passing through the central station (...) we want to harvest some of the heat they produce to help heat the new building," Karl Sundholm of property management company Jernhuset told AFP. .
About 250.000 people pass through the station every day.
"Everyone produces heat (...) Instead of opening the windows and letting that heat escape we want to capture it through the ventilation system," said Sundholm.
The heat given off by humans will be used to heat water which will then be routed to the new building which will house offices, a small hotel and shops. Its construction should be completed in early 2010.
"This is old technology but used in a new way. It's just pipes, water and pumps, but to our knowledge no one has used this technology in this way yet." , he continued, specifying that the system should reduce heating costs by up to 20%.
The installation of this system should not be complicated and the installation of pipes and pumps should amount to around 200.000 Swedish crowns (21.200 euros), he said.
"For a large building that is expected to cost several hundred million crowns, that's not much," Sundholm said.
source: Yahoo news
PS: Happy New Year everyone ...