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I once visited a geothermal plant about 20km outside Reykjavik that supplies hot water for heating the city. Even in the depths of Icelandic winter, the tempera
by kitd 4y ago
I once visited a geothermal plant about 20km outside Reykjavik that supplies hot water for heating the city. Even in the depths of Icelandic winter, the temperature only drops 1 deg C between the plant and the city. A lot of Rockwool around the pipe IIRC.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bbarn 4y agoI 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 absolutely tell the difference in water temperature. In summer months there's an anti-scald unit in every home that's necessary to prevent it being too hot, but in winter sometimes you end up with rather lackluster showers.
- lazide 4y agoIs 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?
- bbarn 4y agoI 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.