Companies everywhere are looking for new and innovative ways to conserve energy and use natural energy sources where they can. Recently in the news there are two very innovative and interesting ways harness heat.
One company in Sweden is looking to get everyone involved. Well, maybe not everyone will be involved, but they will contribute something very valuable – body heat. The real estate company Jernhusen AB, is looking to their daily commuters in the train terminals. Each day thousands of people hurry to catch a train to work at Stockholm’s railway station. The company believes they can take the body heat from those commuters and use it to help heat nearby buildings. In fact, the firm says the system they are developing will heat about 15 percent of a 13 story building.
“It just came up at a coffee meeting last summer. Somebody suggested: why not do something with all this heat in the station?” project leader Karl Sundholm said. The system will cost about 47,000 US dollars to install.
In Manchester England, a crematorium is looking at an unusual way to reduce their mark on the environment. By using the bodies being burned, they hope to keep mourners warm. It’s no secret that the energy used in cremation is less than environmentally friendly, but by using the heat produced to keep people warm at Dukinfield Crematorium, the heat is going to a good cause. There is enough energy to power the boiler and light the chapel.
“I have no problem with it,” said Rev Tim Hayes of St John’s Church. “They treat people with real dignity at the crematorium, but the procedure itself is a very scientific process. I’ll be very interested to see how the plans unfold.”
The Rev. Dr. Vernon Marshall of Old Chapel called it a “final act of generosity” that is “a lovely way for the dead to provide comfort for the living at a difficult time.”
