COOL DHWhat would be possible if we had close to an unlimited amount of lukewarm water? After conducting workshops, exploring existing ideas and promote low temperature district heating to the public we ended up with some exiting ideas on how to use LTDH in the public space. We hope that this will inspire and help think outside the box when reflecting on the additional possibilities with low temperature district heating grids in cities.
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- In Lund, on an early spring day when the sun is warm, you will see people flock to the south wall of Lund cathedral to eat their lunch or just take a few minutes break in the heat. With the help of low-temperature district heating, there is the opportunity to create more such meeting places. The residual heat can help to warm up walls and associated seating to create life and movement with, for example, lunch grills outdoors even during the colder days of the year.
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- In many cities, skateparks have become an important meeting place for people of mixed ages, not infrequently in connection with an outdoor gym or other activity areas. In summer, the trails stay dry and nice to ride, but in the fall and winter, wet leaves, puddles and snow can make them inaccessible. With the help of low-temperature district heating, it would be possible to keep the tracks in the skatepark a little heated so that snow melted away and the tracks dried up faster. This could make it possible to go outdoors in winter.
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- Water play in the middle of autumn? With the help of low-temperature district heating, the water can be heated up to a comfortable temperature for children to splash with, while the ground and seating on the playground surface can be heated a few degrees for adults or sedentary children to relax on. Do you think heated playgrounds seem to be an attractive opportunity, or is it unnecessary?
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- Imagine a rough day in the late autumn. You have stayed indoors and now you need fresh air. Not far from where you live there is a meeting place for spontaneous sports that is heated a few degrees with low temperature district heating. The place is just warm enough for you to feel comfortable wearing a t-shirt while you are active, and gentle enough to make it comfortable to sit down with a lighter jacket. Could this be a place that you would use with, for example, your friends or family?
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- Water heated to a comfortable temperature would be possible by means of low-temperature district heating. It could be a heated pool or, as in the example above, a water environment suitable for wading in conjunction with a visit to the park – whatever the season.
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- Surely it would be nice not to worry about snow and ice slipping on pedestrian and bicycle lines? With low-temperature district heating in the ground it can become a reality! In addition to reducing the risk of fall accidents, it also has other benefits, such as reduced snow removal costs. Perhaps it may also have an increased environmental benefit. For example, would you choose to walk or cycle instead of taking the car if it were snow-free on the walking and cycling roads during the winter?
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- Are you tired of standing and freezing while waiting for public transport? Imagine a heated bus stop where you can stay warm while waiting for the next bus or tram, something that low temperature district heating can make in a sustainable way. Could this make you choose public transport more often? Would it make your trip more comfortable or is it the same?
Great ideas.
How about warm greenhouses providing urban communities with vertical farming allotments? Combining both warmth and food security into public and community spaces.
This could be done where obsolete air sourced ventilation systems are modified to create roof top greenhouses.
Fresh oxygenated dehumidified air from these greenhouses could then be used as an integral part of air quality control in the HRVS.
Further research into the human microbiome may be able to use these spaces to create urban biodiversity oases to improve public health due to contact with healthy microbes in the local environment.
Grow lights to improve productivity could also provide daylight conditions during the winter months to improve mental health.
These greenhouse could also provide distributed thermal energy storage to improve the load factor of the heat network during winter. Or an evaporative cooling surface for AC in summer.
Thermal regulation of these green houses may be easier to engineer with an active envelope using a mixture of windows for lighting and hybrid solar thermal and PV systems with +90% thermodynamic efficiencies.
These technologies all sound very advance for marketing purposes but are technically readily available in the workforce in other sectors, allowing for a just transition away from the carbon economy.
All around, a very exciting sector. Keep it up!
Thank you Frank for your encouraging words and interesting question. Outside the COOL DH project Kraftringen and the City of Lund (together with several other partners) has explored the possibilities to utilise residual heat for urban food production through a competition. There were many contributions from over 20 countries and the winner was the Season 5 consortium. Read more at: https://nordic.climate-kic.org/news/season5-win-e62000-in-urban-food-from-residual-heat-open-innovation-competition/
Markus Paulsson
Energy strategist
City of Lund