DANCE FLOOR CONVERTS DANCERS' BODY HEAT INTO USABLE ENERGY
A trendy dance hall in Glasgow, Scotland, features an innovative dance floor that recycles energy from the body heat of dancers.
SWG3 hosts some of Glasgow’s largest dance parties, with thousands of people getting together to dance all night throughout the year. Starting this month, the dancers will not just be burning energy by busting moves but will also help keep it warm or cool, depending on the season. That is thanks to “Bodyheat,” an aptly-named dance floor that harnesses the body heat of dancers and recycles it.
The innovative system has been under development for three years and is a joint project of SWG3 and geothermal energy startup, TownRock Energy.
“When you start dancing at a medium pace, to the Rolling Stones, for example, you might be generating 250W of power,” David Townsend, founder of TownRock Energy, said. “But if you have a high-power DJ, absolutely slamming basslines and making everyone jump up and down, you could be generating 500-600W of thermal energy.”
TownRock Energy explained that Bodyheat works by capturing the heat generated by dancers, which is usually transferred into the dance hall, and pumping it into 12 underground spaces approximately 150m deep. The holes lead to a large underground rock cube that acts as a heat absorber, storing the energy so that, in cold weather, it can be used to supply hot water extra heat and to the venue. In hot weather, the system cools the dance hall’s atmosphere by sucking all the body heat from it.
Andrew Fleming-Brown, managing director of SWG3, admitted that a conventional heating or cooling system would have cost about 90 percent less than the £600,000 (USD$670,000) invested into Bodyheat, but he adds that the savings on energy bills make the investment recoverable in about five years.
“Trying to do an external geothermal well would have cost millions of pounds,” TownRock Energy’s David Townsend added. “Instead, we thought, why not collect the heat you already have from your customers and then use the ground to store it?”
If all goes according to plan, SWG3 estimates that the Bodyheat dance floor will help it get rid of its three gas-fired furnaces, reducing its annual carbon output by up to 70 metric tons. And all eyes are on SWG3 right now, because if the system proves a success here, there is no reason why it cannot be replicated somewhere else.
“If we can make it work here in this environment, there’s no reason why we can’t take it to other venues, not just here in Scotland and the UK, but also across Europe and farther away,” Mr. Fleming-Brown said.
LEARNING TOOLS
English questions about this article or about English in general?
Ask Teacher Jack at: asktjack1@gmail.com
CHECK OUT OUR OTHER PAGES:
ARCHIVE/JOKES TEACHER JACK IDIOMS ENGLISH FACTS
NEED A GREAT, EXPERIENCED ENGLISH TEACHER OR PERSONAL TUTOR? Contact Teacher Jack!
Facebook: Full Spectrum English Tutor Teacher Jack
ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW AT
Offbeat English
https://linggle-offbeatenglish.blogspot.com/
COME BACK SOON!