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21 comments on Can New York Replicate Water Success with Energy

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totoneila on January 20, 2007 - 1:40pm Permalink | Subthread | Comments top

Hello Glenn,

NYC can save both electricity and water by going back to opening windows and/or using evaporative cooling when it gets hot. From this 12 page PDFlink:

http://www.sahra.arizona.edu/kt/media/files/Phoenix_12-7-2004/Woodard_Ga...
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In the desert Southwest, power plants evaporate water in cooling towers. The Palo Verde Nuclear Plant near Phoenix used 23.66 billion gallons of water in 2002 to generate 30.8 millionMWatt-hours, or 0.77 gallons per Kwatt-hour.
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I have no idea what NYC's gallons evaporated/KWHr rate would be, but retrofitting buildings with manual windows [like in the old days] will save much energy and water versus running sealed and pressurized climate controlled interior spaces.

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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Rich Walden on January 20, 2007 - 1:48pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Bob: You hear it all the time, "Evap cooling is not efficient if the dew point is above 55 degrees F. NYC being on the ocean and in a humid summer climate is not a good place for swamp coolers.

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totoneila on January 20, 2007 - 2:12pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Hello Rich Walden,

Run the evap-cooled air through a double clad exterior-- thus it eliminates humidity inside the building. This link was written by a New York architect for NYC:

http://sd-metroinfo.org/Sustainable_Skyscrapers.htm

I am not an architect/engineer, but it seems like sound engineering to save lots of energy.

Bob Shaw in Phx,Az Are Humans Smarter than Yeast?

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Rich Walden on January 20, 2007 - 9:36pm Permalink | Subthread | Parent | Comments top

Well I must say that the link certainly isn't you fathers squeaky window swamp cooler. While those buildings referenced seem much more efficient, as well they should be, being specificially designed, are they a concept or a practical solution? I can't say which, but there is some excellent ideas and some which seem at first glance to be highly impractical. For the last 5 years before my retirement, I is was involved in the production of advanced building materials. It was not difficult to get people to say it was a great idea, but try to get them to sign on the dotted line to use it was another thing. I think the concepts used in those buildings have promise, but the devil is in the details

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