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Alberta has a neighborhood that stores heat in the summer for winter use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Landing_Solar_Community https://en.wikipedia.org/

Alberta has a neighborhood that stores heat in the summer for winter use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Landing_Solar_Community https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Landing_Solar_Community

LegitShady 4y ago
its only ~50 homes
- barbazoo 4y ago
  > Optimal community size would be 200-300 homes to realize the economies of scale. The number of systems would remain the same; only the number of boreholes would need to increase Decentralized systems like this one are cheaper and faster to build so it makes sense that the number of households served is on the low end. That doesn't mean it's not useful tech.
  - Retric 4y ago
    It’s interesting. 7 million in support to supply 97% of annual heat for 52 homes isn’t that far off being reasonable for an early R&D project. An 80% price drop at modest scale, say 100 different 300 home subdivisions actually seems achievable. I think it’s largely a question of how dependent this is on local geology.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
O__________O 4y ago
Read the Wikipedia page, might be missing something, but seems like the system works in summer and winter, but don’t see anything about summer production being used in the winter.
- bathtub365 4y ago
  From the Wikipedia page: > The borehole thermal energy system (BTES) is located underground to store large quantities of heat collected in the summer to be used in the winter.
- rcv 4y ago
  > The borehole thermal energy system (BTES) is located underground to store large quantities of heat collected in the summer to be used in the winter. Basically they heat up the soil and rock beneath their park during the summer using hot water/glycol from their solar arrays, and then during the winter they pump cold water through it which soaks that heat back up. What's amazing is that it apparently took 4 years to fully saturate the area with heat energy.
  - tsol 4y ago
    And there isn't a massive amount of heat loss with that? It's a cool idea, what surprises me is that it actually works
    - ggm 4y ago
      London Underground originally was kept cool because of its thermal mass. Over the last 100 years, it has now turned into a giant heat store, and there is an emerging airconditioning problem. I believe its the resistive heating from the trains passing through, over time, plus the sweaty exhalation of millions of people. TL;DR ground heat is remarkably persisting and takes years to dissipate, if deep enough. Coolth, the absence of heat, is really the same in this regard, because the heat transport through the ground is not rapid. This is also why deep hot rocks need fracking to get thermal energy working unless its happening naturally. Rocks all around the place "down there" are hot. Very hot. A lot of ground water comes out hot. Bath (uk) for instance. its hot. So how come the rest of bath is cold and wet? Because ground heat doesn't move fast.
      - O__________O 4y ago
        From Wikipedia, “When the tunnels were built the clay temperature was around 14 °C; this has now risen to 19–26 °C” According to the same page though, the tunnels only add 4% to the heat and humans add 7% — remaining 89% comes from the trains; unless I misunderstood something. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_cooling https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_cooling

Alberta has a neighborhood that stores heat in the summer for winter use: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Landing_Solar_Community https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_Landing_Solar_Community

LegitShady 4y ago

its only ~50 homes

barbazoo 4y ago
> Optimal community size would be 200-300 homes to realize the economies of scale. The number of systems would remain the same; only the number of boreholes would need to increase Decentralized systems like this one are cheaper and faster to build so it makes sense that the number of households served is on the low end. That doesn't mean it's not useful tech.
- Retric 4y ago
  It’s interesting. 7 million in support to supply 97% of annual heat for 52 homes isn’t that far off being reasonable for an early R&D project. An 80% price drop at modest scale, say 100 different 300 home subdivisions actually seems achievable. I think it’s largely a question of how dependent this is on local geology.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

O__________O 4y ago

Read the Wikipedia page, might be missing something, but seems like the system works in summer and winter, but don’t see anything about summer production being used in the winter.

bathtub365 4y ago
From the Wikipedia page: > The borehole thermal energy system (BTES) is located underground to store large quantities of heat collected in the summer to be used in the winter.
rcv 4y ago
> The borehole thermal energy system (BTES) is located underground to store large quantities of heat collected in the summer to be used in the winter. Basically they heat up the soil and rock beneath their park during the summer using hot water/glycol from their solar arrays, and then during the winter they pump cold water through it which soaks that heat back up. What's amazing is that it apparently took 4 years to fully saturate the area with heat energy.
- tsol 4y ago
  And there isn't a massive amount of heat loss with that? It's a cool idea, what surprises me is that it actually works
  - ggm 4y ago
    London Underground originally was kept cool because of its thermal mass. Over the last 100 years, it has now turned into a giant heat store, and there is an emerging airconditioning problem. I believe its the resistive heating from the trains passing through, over time, plus the sweaty exhalation of millions of people. TL;DR ground heat is remarkably persisting and takes years to dissipate, if deep enough. Coolth, the absence of heat, is really the same in this regard, because the heat transport through the ground is not rapid. This is also why deep hot rocks need fracking to get thermal energy working unless its happening naturally. Rocks all around the place "down there" are hot. Very hot. A lot of ground water comes out hot. Bath (uk) for instance. its hot. So how come the rest of bath is cold and wet? Because ground heat doesn't move fast.
    - O__________O 4y ago
      From Wikipedia, “When the tunnels were built the clay temperature was around 14 °C; this has now risen to 19–26 °C” According to the same page though, the tunnels only add 4% to the heat and humans add 7% — remaining 89% comes from the trains; unless I misunderstood something. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_cooling https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Underground_cooling