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Industrial Age canals tackle 21st century climate crisis: Research proves canals can cool UK’s overheating cities


Ray T

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My understanding at the time was that they made the ingredients for tooth paste. The warm water discharged into the canal was free of any substances but the River Rea which ran the other side of the factory had a permanently white riverbed. I don't know who was responsible for the canal turning orange that time, perhaps it wasn't Sturges as there were other factories half a mile along the canal.

 

I know about the history of the bridge but I'm not old enough to remember when it was a lift or fixed bridge. It was always a swing bridge in my day and the key for it had to be obtained from the lock keeper at Lifford by the guillotine lock. His cottage was demolished years ago when Lifford Lane road bridge was widened.

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38 minutes ago, Grassman said:

His cottage was demolished years ago when Lifford Lane road bridge was widened.

I seem to recall the cottage was demolished several years before the bridge was rebuilt. For some time the lower walls of the cottage remained to a foot or two above towpath level, with rough concrete laid over what was presumably the demolition rubble within the building footprint. All tidied up and grassed when the bridge was replaced.

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7 minutes ago, David Mack said:

I seem to recall the cottage was demolished several years before the bridge was rebuilt. For some time the lower walls of the cottage remained to a foot or two above towpath level, with rough concrete laid over what was presumably the demolition rubble within the building footprint. All tidied up and grassed when the bridge was replaced.

Didn't it use to be the case many years ago if there was still walls standing you could rebuild on top of them without planning consent, just something I recall from a kid and a cottage in out village.

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Thanks for the photo David, it brings back great memories of my childhood.  Kings Norton was a great place to live in those days and didn't have the reputation it does now. It was heartbreaking a few years ago to see the lock and bridge covered in graffiti within weeks of the extensive restoration work being carried out.

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  • 2 months later...
On 21/10/2021 at 17:06, IanD said:

 

If you look into how a heat pump works, having a low temperature source for heating reduces the efficiency and output a bit but it's still pretty good, otherwise ground source heat pumps wouldn't work in places like Scandinavia in winter -- but they do.

 

The big problem for boats -- especially on the canals -- is that when used for heating the water outlet is by definition cooler than the inlet (since heat is extracted from it), and with sensible water flow rates this difference is at least a few degrees -- so if you're taking in fresh water below 4C (canal in winter) the output water could be at 0C and the cold end of the heat pump will freeze up. Ground source heat pumps get round this by using a concentrated brine solution which has a much lower freezing point. Seawater would be a bit better than fresh because it freezes around -2C, but this is only a tiny improvement.

 

This is also why a skin tank doesn't work, even a few degrees additional temperature difference between the water inside the tank and outside makes everything much worse.

Ground source heat pumps & geothermal heating information (renewablesguide.co.uk)

 

That article got me kind of interested in ground source type heat pumps, as they can provide hot water, air and even AC in winter or summer in a more efficient way than a diesel heater. Anyone done this in a small boat by using a sea water intake ?? If they have, it would be good to see a few pic's or even a video.

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38 minutes ago, TNLI said:

Ground source heat pumps & geothermal heating information (renewablesguide.co.uk)

 

That article got me kind of interested in ground source type heat pumps, as they can provide hot water, air and even AC in winter or summer in a more efficient way than a diesel heater. Anyone done this in a small boat by using a sea water intake ?? If they have, it would be good to see a few pic's or even a video.

 

It is a 'standard' heating / AC method on bigger leisure vessels. We spoke with the suppier with a view to adding it but they actually suggested that it would not really work anywhere North of a line (roughly) Norfolk across to Wales as the Sea was too cold - particularly the Northern North Sea due to being fed with very cold waters from the likes of the baltic.

 

They told us that once the water gets to ~5*C you need a secondary source of heating to boost the heat generated.

 

Water temperature of the North Sea - real time map and monthly temperatures (seatemperatu.re)

 

The seasonal average for the water temperature in the month of January is between 3.1°C and 8.5°C. The lowest sea temperature measured this month is -0.9°C and the highest is 9.9°C.

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3 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

It is a 'standard' heating / AC method on bigger leisure vessels. We spoke with the suppier with a view to adding it but they actually suggested that it would not really work anywhere North of a line (roughly) Norfolk across to Wales as the Sea was too cold - particularly the Northern North Sea due to being fed with very cold waters from the likes of the baltic.

 

They told us that once the water gets to ~5*C you need a secondary source of heating to boost the heat generated.

 

Water temperature of the North Sea - real time map and monthly temperatures (seatemperatu.re)

 

The seasonal average for the water temperature in the month of January is between 3.1°C and 8.5°C. The lowest sea temperature measured this month is -0.9°C and the highest is 9.9°C.

 

The marine aircon/heating heat pumps don't work with inlet water temperatures below 5C, they shut down -- I looked at using this one for a narrowboat.

 

https://www.advanceyacht.co.uk/marine-air-conditioning-units-all/p/frigomar-scu16vfd

 

So you need another source of heating for when the water is cooler than this, for example a diesel heater or stove.

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1 hour ago, IanD said:

 

The marine aircon/heating heat pumps don't work with inlet water temperatures below 5C, they shut down -- I looked at using this one for a narrowboat.

 

https://www.advanceyacht.co.uk/marine-air-conditioning-units-all/p/frigomar-scu16vfd

 

So you need another source of heating for when the water is cooler than this, for example a diesel heater or stove.

That describes itself as a cooling unit. I would be looking for something specifically designed as a heat pump for heating, and not necessarily cooling.  And having a separate piped heat exchanger looks inefficient compared with something that uses the large surface area already in contact with the heat source (canal water). What it needs is the refrigerant pipes thermally bonded to a narrowboat bottom plate!

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9 hours ago, David Mack said:

That describes itself as a cooling unit. I would be looking for something specifically designed as a heat pump for heating, and not necessarily cooling.  And having a separate piped heat exchanger looks inefficient compared with something that uses the large surface area already in contact with the heat source (canal water). What it needs is the refrigerant pipes thermally bonded to a narrowboat bottom plate!

It's a cooling and heating unit, the heat pump connections just get swapped over -- the heating is "free" with the aircon (or vice versa).

 

All heat pumps units like this -- ground source home ones included -- use a secondary liquid cooling loop as well as the primary HFC one, the heat then has to be transferred from this to the environment somehow. The ground source ones use a network of brine-filled pipes, which you could then take to a skin tank. This unit is designed to use fresh water directly, hence the 5C intake limit.

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