A Carless Design 3
A city built only for streetcars and pedestrian traffic solves two energy problems at once. It eliminates the need for automobiles and drastically increases the efficiency of heating and cooling systems within the buildings because of the high density.
Today, at least in the United States, people are driving 4.7% less than they were a month ago. (Bloomberg) But as much as people want to drive less, there's a limit to this reduction because North American cities were built for motorism and sprawling suburbs. Carless Design parts 1 and 2 outlined some of the cultural benefits and possibilities from J.H. Crawford's 'bubble community' city plan . Part 3 will introduce some of the structural benefits and possibilities.
Most buildings these days have two primary sources of heating: people and furnaces. However, alternative heat sources exist that wouldn't be feasible for single homes because of the scale or big box stores because of the wide open spaces. Computer servers, for instance, generate a lot of heat. A large portion of the energy used by a computer server is to keep it cool, and that heat is generally released as waste.
But consider an apartment building with a server in the middle of it, with cold air being pumped to it from outside and hot air being circulated away from the server and throughout the building. This way the server heat takes over in part for the building furnace. Every unit of heat generated reduces the amount needed to heat the building by an equal amount. Computers are usually more active during the day when there is a greater demand for heating, and if nights are too cool then major computations can be reserved for nighttime to improve heating. If the demand for computers is too small to fill every 100-200 person building with an adequate server, then other small industries that generate heat from electric motors can substitute for a server.
In a single dwelling, getting a hot shower in the morning takes a lot of energy. Water has a very large heat capacity compared to other materials, and showering heats water from 15 to 40 degrees Celsius, uses the hot water for a few seconds and disposes of it while it's still 34 to 37 degrees hot. Recycling that hot water directly may be a bad idea, but at least half of the heat from that water can still be reused before the water is dumped into the sewer system.
Consider a piping layout such that pipes carrying warm water away from showers and dishwashers ran along the sides of pipes carrying cold water to the boiler of a building in such a way that the cold water drew some of the heat from the hot water before it reached the boiler. The boiler could start with water at 25 or even 30 degrees Celsius and heat it from there. What's really handy is that the greater the demand for hot water is, the more of a head start the boiler gets and the easier time it has delivering hot water to wherever it's demanded. With enough efficiency, surprise cold showers could be almost eliminated while saving energy at the same time.
Since most buildings are four floors high in this model carless city, elevators for freight are going to be a major issue. Nobody wants to haul a couch up six flights of stairs, and having an elevator in every building would get expensive to build and maintain. But on the assumption that most buildings will have nearly the same height, then a series of sky bridges can be built so that one elevator for every three or four buildings in most districts will suffice.
A tenant moving in could put his or her couch on something wheeled, bring it up the elevator and take a single sky bridge from the desired floor of the building with the elevator to the desired floor of the building he or she wants to get to. Because there are only footpaths on the ground, the bridges would never need to be more than 3 metres long. Under this 3-metre restriction one elevator can serve at least three and often five buildings with only one bridge from elevator building to destination building.
These energy improvements come in addition to those already enjoyed by apartment tenants and condominium owners generated from sharing walls that are roughly the same temperature on both sides and shared facilities like parks instead of lawns. Roof space hasn't even been considered, but with a good structure there is a potential for private and semi-private green spaces which not only would offer a heat-sink to the top of the building, but would look magnificent from hundreds of roofs at similar heights across a city.
Today, at least in the United States, people are driving 4.7% less than they were a month ago. (Bloomberg) But as much as people want to drive less, there's a limit to this reduction because North American cities were built for motorism and sprawling suburbs. Carless Design parts 1 and 2 outlined some of the cultural benefits and possibilities from J.H. Crawford's 'bubble community' city plan . Part 3 will introduce some of the structural benefits and possibilities.
Most buildings these days have two primary sources of heating: people and furnaces. However, alternative heat sources exist that wouldn't be feasible for single homes because of the scale or big box stores because of the wide open spaces. Computer servers, for instance, generate a lot of heat. A large portion of the energy used by a computer server is to keep it cool, and that heat is generally released as waste.
But consider an apartment building with a server in the middle of it, with cold air being pumped to it from outside and hot air being circulated away from the server and throughout the building. This way the server heat takes over in part for the building furnace. Every unit of heat generated reduces the amount needed to heat the building by an equal amount. Computers are usually more active during the day when there is a greater demand for heating, and if nights are too cool then major computations can be reserved for nighttime to improve heating. If the demand for computers is too small to fill every 100-200 person building with an adequate server, then other small industries that generate heat from electric motors can substitute for a server.
In a single dwelling, getting a hot shower in the morning takes a lot of energy. Water has a very large heat capacity compared to other materials, and showering heats water from 15 to 40 degrees Celsius, uses the hot water for a few seconds and disposes of it while it's still 34 to 37 degrees hot. Recycling that hot water directly may be a bad idea, but at least half of the heat from that water can still be reused before the water is dumped into the sewer system.
Consider a piping layout such that pipes carrying warm water away from showers and dishwashers ran along the sides of pipes carrying cold water to the boiler of a building in such a way that the cold water drew some of the heat from the hot water before it reached the boiler. The boiler could start with water at 25 or even 30 degrees Celsius and heat it from there. What's really handy is that the greater the demand for hot water is, the more of a head start the boiler gets and the easier time it has delivering hot water to wherever it's demanded. With enough efficiency, surprise cold showers could be almost eliminated while saving energy at the same time.
Since most buildings are four floors high in this model carless city, elevators for freight are going to be a major issue. Nobody wants to haul a couch up six flights of stairs, and having an elevator in every building would get expensive to build and maintain. But on the assumption that most buildings will have nearly the same height, then a series of sky bridges can be built so that one elevator for every three or four buildings in most districts will suffice.
A tenant moving in could put his or her couch on something wheeled, bring it up the elevator and take a single sky bridge from the desired floor of the building with the elevator to the desired floor of the building he or she wants to get to. Because there are only footpaths on the ground, the bridges would never need to be more than 3 metres long. Under this 3-metre restriction one elevator can serve at least three and often five buildings with only one bridge from elevator building to destination building.
These energy improvements come in addition to those already enjoyed by apartment tenants and condominium owners generated from sharing walls that are roughly the same temperature on both sides and shared facilities like parks instead of lawns. Roof space hasn't even been considered, but with a good structure there is a potential for private and semi-private green spaces which not only would offer a heat-sink to the top of the building, but would look magnificent from hundreds of roofs at similar heights across a city.
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