3 ms·
Forgive the dumb question, but what's the point of these systems, compared to just using hot water? Here in northern Europe, these systems are virtually unhear
by jabl 8y ago
Forgive the dumb question, but what's the point of these systems, compared to just using hot water?
Here in northern Europe, these systems are virtually unheard of. What's quite common, OTOH, are city-wide district heating systems, often run from the waste heat from electric power plants. IIRC the temperature of the heating water mains when going out from the plants is around 110C or so (it's water, not steam, due to it being slightly pressurized [1]). Each house or block then has it's own heat exchanger, used for heating the water that goes to the radiators (which IIRC is kept above 60C to avoid bacterial growth) as well as producing warm tap water.
[1] Which makes for a nice show when there's a break in the heating mains somewhere; lots of steam coming out of the ground.
- nkurz 8y agowhat's the point of these systems, compared to just using hot water? The main advantage is probably that you don't need any pumps. This can increase efficiency, and removes a major point of failure. The other big difference is that phase transition from water to steam is very high energy. By weight, steam transports 6x the heat of liquid water, and releases 5/6 of this as soon as it condenses back to water. Depending on the situation, this can be an advantage. In general, I don't think that either system has a tremendous advantage -- they are just different. For modern systems, advantage probably leans to hot water.