Re: Heating a City

phoenix@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
 (Damien Sullivan) wrote:

>Operation: 100 W/m2, 100 megawatts.  Kind of high, especially if
>electric.  Overkill?  8.8e8 kilowatt-hours, $88 million/year if
>electric.  I don't how much good 10 W/m2 would do.

Of course, we don't have to operate year-round.  Just doing the winter
should cut costs to 1/3 or 1/4 of that.  Also, while the original goal
was to raise temperatures by 20 degrees, a minimum improvement would
being able to de-ice the city, so you'd go out in a heavy coat but at
least not worry about ice.  I'm guessing bursts of heat to clear the
snow and ice would be a lot cheaper, down to whatever the infrastructure
cost was.

Of course, space heating doesn't give us full climate control, like
shedding rain; we'd need actual roofs for that.

-xx- Damien X-)