Commuters' body heat to warm Swedish office
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A Swedish state-owned firm has found a cheap, eco-friendly source of energy to warm one of its offices: body heat from 250,000 commuters steaming through Stockholm's central train station.
Body heat already warms the station itself but the surplus, currently let out into the air, will be redirected to provide as much as 15 per cent of the heating in a planned 4,000 square metre office building, real estate firm Jernhusen says.
Karl Sundholm is the project leader at Jernhusen, which also owns the station.
"We had a look at it and thought 'We might actually be able to use this'," he said.
"This feels good. Instead of just airing the leftover heat out we try to make use of it."
Jernhusen markets the building as "environment smart" and aims for its energy consumption to be half of what a corresponding building usually is.
The bodily warmth from the central station will be redirected to heat up water.
Mr Sundholm says the investment will be around 200,000 Swedish crowns ($35,000).
- Reuters
