Man made warming

[torchthebitch]

Literally.

Fury over cash-strapped council's 'sick' plan to heat swimming pool by plugging it into crematorium
By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 12:27 PM on 24th January 2011

A cash-strapped council came under fire today after revealing plans to heat a swimming pool - by plugging it into a nearby CREMATORIUM.

Town hall chiefs want to use excess heat generated by the incinerator to warm the water for swimmers - and save £14,500-a-year on heating bills.

If approved, Redditch Borough Council will be the first authority in the country to use a crematorium to heat a swimming pool.

The council has outlined plans to heat Abbey Stadium Sports Centre from the cremators at neighbouring Borough Of Redditch Cemeteries & Crematorium.

Currently, heat from the incinerators - which reach 800 degrees C (1,472F) - is lost into the atmosphere.

Council chiefs say it will save cash and is a greener way of powering the leisure centre.

But local people have expressed concerns at the proposals, branding them 'eerie'.

Simon Thomas, of Thomas Brothers Funeral Directors, said: ''I don't know how comfortable people would feel about the swimming pool being heated due to the death of a loved one, I think it's a bit strange and eerie.

'I'm not comfortable with it at all and I think trying to save money due to the death of someone's family member or friend is a bit sick.

'I think it will cause uproar and may even put people off using the facilities which would lose the council money.

'It just doesn't feel right.'

But council leader Carole Gandy defended the plans, saying it would be save money and energy 'in the long-term'.

She said: 'I'd much rather use the energy rather than just see it going out of the chimney and heating the sky.

'It will make absolutely no difference to the people who are using the crematorium for services.

'I do recognise some people might not like it, but if they don't they don't have to use our crematorium.

'I wouldn't want them to do that but they have to make that choice.

'It's only a proposal at the moment but personally I'm supportive of it because I think it will save the authority money and, in the long-term, save energy which is what we're all being told we should do.'

Gordon Hull, from the Federation of Burial and Cremation Authorities, said: 'From an environmental view it makes sense that you don't need a separate boiler because of how much waste heat is created from the process.'

A public meeting to discuss the plans will be held on Thursday before the matter is discussed at the council's executive committee next Tuesday.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-swimming-pool-crematorium.html#ixzz1By9Mefv2

 

[Sinny]

Oh, man.
Bad.

 

[torchthebitch]

Could be convenient if you drown in the pool.

 

[butters]

part of me applauds the logic and economy, part of me is shocked. i'm reckoning this move won't come to fruition due to people's sensitivity about death. how much of this sensitivity is due to our knowledge of the nazi concentration camps with their ovens?

what it DOES do, is open the topic of "could this wasted heat be used for anything beneficial?"

how would people feel, for example, if pipes were laid beneath football pitches to keep them ice-free during the winter months? or to help heat greenhouses that produce a food product, or flowers for the florists to sell for the funerals?

i'm thinking 'out of sight, out of mind'.

personally, i wouldn't have a problem - at ALL - with my remains being used for any productive process... fertiliser, a growth-medium, whatever. once i'm dead, my body is simply a carcass.

 

[torchthebitch]

Considering the amount of energy that is used in cremation it makes sense to think about how the waste heat is used. It is next to impossible to reduce a human body to ash in the open air, it takes an oven with constant input, usually gas, to fully consume it. We cannot justify using that energy solely to burn a body. Maybe the solution would be to tack the crematorium onto a power station.

Actually I think burial is far more ecological and hygenic. After all that is the purpose of the decomposer vectors.

 

[thør]

Makes a heck of a lot of sense to use waste heat of any kind. And they don't have to run ducts under the pool like a roman bath. There are other technologies that are more efficient.

 

[torchthebitch]

Makes a heck of a lot of sense to use waste heat of any kind. And they don't have to run ducts under the pool like a roman bath. There are other technologies that are more efficient.

Linked to thermal solar panels to raise water temp to begin with, it could prove a practical combined electricity generating system.

 

[where]

Could be convenient if you drown in the pool.

*teaspew*

I think people would rather the pool was heated in that way than have to pay an extra £2 admission charge.

 

[torchthebitch]

*teaspew*

I think people would rather the pool was heated in that way than have to pay an extra £2 admission charge.

There was a load of comment on Radio 2 about it. It seems there are a lot of people who would disagree with you. But it uses so much energy I don't see how it can be justified just to let it go up the chimney.

 

[philosophygirl]

There was a load of comment on Radio 2 about it. It seems there are a lot of people who would disagree with you. But it uses so much energy I don't see how it can be justified just to let it go up the chimney.

it makes sense and seems practical...but I'm sure for most who object... it's the ewwwww factor. An oven with a burning body in it, heating a pool is not the most appealing thought.