4 ms·
Ask HN: Why not have a heating unit shared by many houses?
Such a unit could be owned and maintained by the city.
Wouldn't this be safer than expecting the owners of a house to maintain one?
Similarly, you could have an air conditioning unit shared by many houses and maintained by the city.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- HarryHirsch 4y agoYou mean district heating and district cooling? That has been invented but requires a certain density.
- humblefactory 4y agoRight. And with the current scale of infrastructure that's used, financing models, market incentives, and cost of fuel, the current density required mostly only occurs in the downtown core of cities, or in industrial parks near a power station (where the waste heat from power generation can be used to heat industrial processes like refining petroleum or cook paper pulp - sometimes this is called "co-generation"). But that's not to say it's a bad idea! You would just need to move the needle on any of those things in the list - for example, making denser homes around a lower cost heat source like a ground sources heat pump powered by solar.
- coretx 4y agoNo. Two houses connected to each other can already save money and energy by means of sharing one larger/better installation instead of two "small" ones.
- willcipriano 4y agoCan they? Aren't most modern heaters (oil, gas) close to 100% efficient? If you get an extra percent or two out of a larger system I'd expect that to be lost in transmission between the heater shed and the house.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- bartmika 4y agoI think this is called "district heating" [0]? And such a thing is practised around the world. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_heating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_heating
- 8bitsrule 4y agoThis will undoubtedly become more commonplace now that 'waste heat' is no longer thought of as a mere inconvenience. I've seen large in-city facilities that dump 'waste heat' through windows that open into the outdoor air in wintertime, right across the street from a row of multi-story apartment buildings. For example, the article cited mentions that: "ADE estimates that 54 percent of energy used to produce electricity is being wasted via conventional power production, which relates to £9.5 billion ($US12.5 billion) per year." Siting housing next to power plants (and other plants with 'waste heat') is likely worth considering!
- Matthias247 4y agoYes. I had it in my previous home in germany.
- kylecordes 4y agoI think this was more common many years ago, when it was difficult to make a reasonably reliable and efficient heating/cooling system, particularly the small scale. Modern HVAC systems can be very efficient, use minimal materials, and require only electricity lines run between homes, for a considerably lower overall infrastructure cost and good efficiency compared to a district system with very extensive plumbing.
- brtkdotse 4y agoIf you have housing near a heat producing industry, it’s wasteful to not use the heat that’s getting cooled out anyway.
- solardev 4y agoI lived in Chicago recently and it was pretty common there, with fat heat pipes running through several apartments channeling heat from some central distribution system.
- timonoko 4y agoMost Nordic cities have central heating plants for millions of homes. This water is recycled, colored bright green and have non-corrosive additives. Helsinki has also central cooling system utilizing near-by Baltic sea. There is also yearly discussion about using the heating radiators for cooling. Unfortunately system is not designed for that and condensation will damage buildings.
- dendrite9 4y ago90% of houses in Linkoping get heating from the power utility. https://www.tekniskaverken.se/about-tekniska-verken/products-and-services-for-the-regional-market/ https://www.tekniskaverken.se/about-tekniska-verken/products... I think I posted a comment here about a family friend who had two heating circuits, one for the house and one for a pool which was only used/heated in the summers.
- 2rsf 4y agoSo is the Stockholm area, they also "buy" excess heat from data centers and other places and offer district cooling as well
- tacostakohashi 4y agoThis is a great idea; so much so that steam has been available as a utility in NYC since 1882!
- rongopo 4y agoI do. In EU.
- rasz 4y agoWhats next? Not building houses out of cardboard?
- brtkdotse 4y agoIt’s not uncommon to see multiple duplexes share a single geothermal heat pump is Sweden.
- logicalmonster 4y agoSomebody has been playing Frostpunk.