In icy climates, it's not unheard of to have buildings using stored ice and snow from the winter for cooling in the summer, but a new plan in Switzerland will turn that approach on its head. Hoggenberg Campus in Switzerland is building a new phase of the school called Science City where warm air will be stored in the summer to be used for heating in the winter.
The plan involves capturing excess heat from appliances, computer servers, and even body heat during the summer and pumping it underground into two heat storage fields made up of 800, 200-meter-long, water-filled pipes. Those pipes will be five meters underground, beneath and alongside the buildings.
The heat will be stored in the circulating water at about 46 - 64 degrees Fahrenheit. In colder months, the heat will be pumped through the system and electricity will bring the temperature up to 86 - 95 degrees Fahrenheit for warming the buildings.
The campus and so-called heat-exchanger system won't be completed until 2020, but when it's done, the system, along with energy efficiency and insulation improvements, will allow the buildings to use electricity for only one-twelfth of its heating and cooling needs.
via PhysOrg
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written by Carl Hage, July 15, 2010
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JUL 14
"This is really a ground-sourced heat pump for heating, and possibly ju..."
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