In a city like Buffalo, where we love our winters (for the most part), it is a wonder that there are not more heated sidewalks in commercial districts. It is a rare occasion when I happen upon one, which is why I was surprised when I found out that a friend, Scott Huber, had installed one in front of his building at 491 Delaware Avenue. I called Scott to find out just what it took to pull off the project, and he told me that the hardest part was finding a contractor to take on such a small job*. That led me to wondering what it would take to pull off a large job - say Main Street or Allentown as new infrastructure is added and reconfigured.
It is interesting to note that Scott is the owner of an insurance agency (Allstate) called Huber Agency. Knowing that, it makes a lot of sense that he would install heated sidewalks leading up to his residence and business. "I don't understand why more people don't have heated sidewalks," he told me. "At Bank of America, just down the street, there are heated sidewalks and when I walked over there Monday morning they were completely clear of snow and steaming. I am aware of other cities that have centralized boiler systems in order to implement the feature on a large scale. While installing a system on a small scale is not cheap, installing a centralized boiler system in a commercial neighborhood would bring the cost way down. The way I look at it, a city like Buffalo could have, and should have, heated sidewalks, crosswalks and streets in busy commercial districts. Just think about how many people would come to visit and all of the business that would be generated. Also think about all of the salt that would be saved from being flushed down the sewer systems."
On his personal system, Scott added a high efficiency boiler that only kicks on if the temperature hits freezing and there is moisture in the air. As you can see (photo), there is quite a difference when you compare the heated walkway to the shoveled walkway. I hope that The City is at least researching the cost/practicality as it moves forward redesigning and improving its commercial districts. If other cites are indeed initiating this practice, then there's no reason that Buffalo should not be implementing as well.
*The contractor that agreed to do the work was Twin Air Heating and Cooling
View image
It is interesting to note that Scott is the owner of an insurance agency (Allstate) called Huber Agency. Knowing that, it makes a lot of sense that he would install heated sidewalks leading up to his residence and business. "I don't understand why more people don't have heated sidewalks," he told me. "At Bank of America, just down the street, there are heated sidewalks and when I walked over there Monday morning they were completely clear of snow and steaming. I am aware of other cities that have centralized boiler systems in order to implement the feature on a large scale. While installing a system on a small scale is not cheap, installing a centralized boiler system in a commercial neighborhood would bring the cost way down. The way I look at it, a city like Buffalo could have, and should have, heated sidewalks, crosswalks and streets in busy commercial districts. Just think about how many people would come to visit and all of the business that would be generated. Also think about all of the salt that would be saved from being flushed down the sewer systems."
On his personal system, Scott added a high efficiency boiler that only kicks on if the temperature hits freezing and there is moisture in the air. As you can see (photo), there is quite a difference when you compare the heated walkway to the shoveled walkway. I hope that The City is at least researching the cost/practicality as it moves forward redesigning and improving its commercial districts. If other cites are indeed initiating this practice, then there's no reason that Buffalo should not be implementing as well.
*The contractor that agreed to do the work was Twin Air Heating and Cooling
Systems like this I feel would make more sense if combined with geothermal systems. Instead of firing up a boiler, why not use free ground heat. 50 degrees is more than enough to melt snow.
Especially when they are already putting in large amounts of infrastructure, the excavation work is already done for you. It 'may' even be able to extract heat from sewers themselves as people flush hot water down the drains. The trick would be to making it simple enough to function for 50+ years. Complexity adds costs and maintenance.
I like this idea!!! Cornell taps into the bottom of the Cayuga Lake for cooling and into the earth for heating.
Let's get with Cornell and divise a way to utilize this for the inner harbor as well. Think Big Go Green (or in Cornell's case - Go Red)
haha doesn't that issue with Cayuga Lake have Ithacans fuming? no pun intended. They affected the lake's ecosystem by doing that.
Taking an opposing position on the debate, Carlos Rymer ’09, president of Cornell’s Sustainability Hub and vice president of Kyoto Now!, feels the evidence shows no need for such concerns.
“Year after year the data show that the facility is not contributing to the degradation of the lake. I think it’s a great thing that people are thinking about potential problems but we have so much data showing no significant impacts on the environment,” he said.
Rymer said that speculations of any University cover-up of pertinent data are unfounded because the people monitoring this project — from Cornell administrators and scientists to contracted nonprofit groups — are professionals genuinely concerned about the health of the lake’s ecosystem.
“Everything I’ve seen as far as the phosphorous load from the lake source cooling facility is minimal, especially compared to other sources,” said Dave Matthews, a research scientist of the Upstate Freshwater Institute, a nonprofit research organization committed to the improvement of water quality and advancement of freshwater research.
“It looks like a good project, and we haven’t seen any significant impacts,” he said.
According to Matthews, development, agriculture and wastewater treatment facilities pose larger threats to the lake health.
“With time and more data on the lake, I think people will begin to see the facility really is no harm,” Rymer said.
Sean, I really like the idea of geothermal, but my only question is how well would such a system perform in the event of a heavy (multiple inch per hour) snowfall?
How much would a system like that cost anyway? both with and without the geothermal?