HOT WATER SCHEME

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33279, 17 July 1973, Page 3

HOT WATER SCHEME

f.V.Z. Press Association) AUCKLAND. July 16. An Auckland engineer specialising in heating and ventilation has offered the Minister of Electricity (Mr McGuigan ) a scheme to use hot water from the Huntly power station to provide heat for industry, swimming pools, and domestic hot water, instead of pouring it into the Waikato River. “There’s always a use for hot water.” said Mr K. Hartley today. “It’s completely unnecessary to pour it into the river.” Instead, the water, used I for cooling the power sta-

tion’s turbines and coming I out about lOOdeg Farenheitj could become the nucleus of I a district heating scheme. Its ’ uses could range from heating pigsties to drying timber. The most important use would be domestic water heating. Water from the power station would be fed into a heat exchanger which would supply hot water. The water could be piped up to, 25 miles and an ordinary water meter could measure its consumption to provide a basis for charging. Supplying hot water this way would save electricity, said Mr Hartley. Other countries had already made good use of waste hot water for district schemes. Mr Hartley is working on a scheme where waste heat

from a computer at Auckland University is being used to heat the building. He calculates that a thermal power station like Huntly would convert only 44 per cent of its coal or gas intake into electricity. The rest would go in heat, much of which would be absorbed in cooling water. OTHER PLACES Any thermal power station could provide waste heat for a district heating scheme, he said. New Plymouth would be ideal, and a station at Te Atatu would be a “real boon” for Auckland. Although costs would be high initially to provide plant and underground insulated pipe-lines, the savings in electricity and charges for the hot water would make it an economic long-term proiposition, said Mr Hartley.