An idea that’s a lot of hot air....

What a great way to make the most of a resource that otherwise goes to waste - a firm in Sweden has found a way to ‘harvest’ body heat generated by travellers at Stockholm Central Station and use it to power the heating in a building over the road. The body heat generated by 250,000 people a day who pass through Stockholm Central Station is ‘collected’ by the heat exchangers in the Central Station’s ventilation system which convert the excess body heat into hot water. That is then pumped to the heating system in the nearby building to keep it warm. More details about the story are in this report from the BBC website.

Not only is the system environmentally friendly but it also lowers the energy costs of the office block by as much as 25%. Doug King, a consultant specialising in design innovation and sustainable development in construction says that “... the financial costs and the benefits will depend very much on the climate and the pricing of energy in a particular country.” and that harnessing body heat works particularly well in Sweden because of their low winter temperatures and high gas prices. But with heating oil doubling in price in the UK since last summer, and gas and electricity prices rising fast as well, its hard to imagine that the economics of such a system couldn’t be attractive here as well.

There must be plenty of buildings - stations, offices, and certainly schools - where enough hot air is generated to fuel any number of heating systems…..