A new system recently installed in a performance space in Scotland uses the dancers' body heat to heat the building in cold weather
Nina Sodin, Angle - Science and Environment News Agency
Many celebrate by dancing. The question of how much energy they generate while dancing, or how it can be used, will certainly not change between jumps. However, in one event space in Scotland, the questions may be very relevant: a system was recently installed that extracts the heat that the dancing crowd produces at parties and concerts - and uses it later to heat the building.
The new system was installed in the event space SWG3 (Studio Warehouse Glasgow 3, so called because it is a reincarnation of a warehouse area): this is an active and familiar complex where you can find exhibitions, performances, parties, studio rooms for artists and a variety of spaces for rent, and hundreds of thousands of guests and creators pass through its gates every sleep.
The venue's management recently announced that it has set a goal of achieving net zero emissions of carbon dioxide as a result of the complex's operations by 2025 or earlier, through a significant reduction of the venue's environmental footprint. according to אתר The studio, "We want to keep dancing, keep working, keep creating, keep inspiring - but we also want to do it in a responsible and innovative way." One of the main steps taken by the complex in order to reach the desired goal is the installation of the new system, which was named BODYHEAT.
The dance that warms rocks
The new system is based on the technology of the Scottish company TownRock Energy, which specializes inGeothermal energy – that is, using the temperature differences between buildings and the ground or subsoil to fuse those buildings. The systems that the company develops are based on heat pumps that extract heat from an underground source (soil, inactive mines or groundwater reservoirs), and transfer it through long pipes filled with air or water into different spaces for their extraction. Alternatively, the pumps can also suck heat from the surface spaces and transfer it to the underground areas, discharge part of the heat there, and thus return air at a lower temperature to the surface spaces. Today, this technology is used for heating and cooling a variety of spaces, from sports centers, through shops and museums to residences.
The BODYHEAT system, developed especially for SWG3, also uses heat pumps. In the case of BODYHEAT, the system extracts the body heat that those present in the place emit using air collectors installed in the ceiling, and sends it through drill holes to rocks that are located at a depth of about 200 meters underground.
During a party or concert, the heat extraction allows the club space to be cooled. The underground rocks heat up as a result of the process, thus storing the heat - for weeks and even months (if necessary). The stored heat can be sent back to the building for heating at times when it is used for other events, where the audience is more stationary and therefore needs heating. According to TownRock Energy, With The studio They could getting rid completely measured The gas Where they used Until so, and save the emission of tens of tons of carbon dioxide every year - thus significantly reducing the environmental footprint of the place.
The BODYHEAT system was launched on November 7 this year, during Climate conference in Glasgow, at the party where the American DJ Honey Dijon was recorded. It should be noted that in addition to the installation of the new system, SWG3 personnel also took additional steps to reduce the scope of the compound's carbon dioxide emissions, such as reducing the use of disposable utensils at events and switching to working with a renewable energy supplier.
Changing the rules of the game?
Even in Israel there are systems that store energy for use when needed in different ways - although not dance energy, for now. For example, at the thermo-solar power plant in Ashlim in the Negev, thousands of mirrors concentrate the sun's radiation into pipes through which thermal oil flows (a special low-viscosity oil), which is therefore heated to a temperature of close to 400 degrees Celsius. The heat is transferred to the water, which turns into steam that drives a turbine that produces electricity. Another system, developed by a company Bernmiller Energy The Israeli one stores the energy using crushed rocks. The system of a company "Ogwind" The Israeli one, stores the energy through סוללות Air: Dedicated air vessels. Pumps that are powered by energy conduct water to the batteries, which causes the air in the tanks to be compressed, and thus the energy is stored in the form of compressed air - until the same air is used to push water through a turbine that generates electricity.
According to Dr. Sharon Soroker, an expert in the energy industry, the very ability to store energy is not new, but the question of how long a system is able to store the energy stored in it, and with what efficiency, is of great importance. "If the BODYHEAT system is really able to store energy effectively for months, this could change the rules of the game," he says. "A system that works like this could allow, for example, a hotel in Eilat to store the heat of August for a few months - and then use it to heat the rooms and the pool in the winter months."
"However, when examining such systems, one needs to understand how much energy is conserved in the storage process, how much it costs the consumer and how much money the system actually saves," adds Soroker. According to him, these are systems whose construction costs are usually relatively high - and in addition, it must be taken into account that usually, in the process of storing energy, there is a certain energy loss (in Barnmiller's system, for example, the loss is about 20 percent of the energy).
Beyond that, even if such a system does convert body heat into energy in an efficient and cost-effective way, it is worth examining what is the best place to implement it - and it may not necessarily (or not only) be in a dance club. "A hospital, for example, is much larger, there are many more people in it - and it also has many more needs, so such an application may be much more profitable there," says Soroker.
The plan of the SWG3 people is to continue installing the system in all the spaces of the complex, until a full launch during the year 2022. We can only hope that we will continue to see similar applications in event spaces and other places - and perhaps in the years to come, those celebrating at parties in different parts of the world will momentarily turn their attention away from the beats of the music, from the feeling the floor under their feet and the questions about the approaching new year, and the thought will pass through their minds that tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, when the same space they are dancing in will be warm and pleasant again, it will happen, among other things, thanks to them.
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