District cooling network
There is an alternative to individual air-conditioning: district cooling networks.
They distribute cool air to offices, shopping centres, hospitals and more and more to homes. VIDEOGRAPHIC
They distribute cool air to offices, shopping centres, hospitals and more and more to homes. VIDEOGRAPHIC
Transcript
00:00 There is an alternative to individual air conditioning, district cooling networks.
00:14 They distribute cool air to offices, shopping centres, hospitals and more and more to homes.
00:20 The system comprises a central cooling system linked to a network of underground pipes which
00:25 take cold water to buildings.
00:27 This is known as the primary closed network.
00:30 Each building needing cooling is equipped with an underground system, including an exchanger
00:35 allowing the transfer of cold water from the district network to the building's pipe system,
00:41 known as the secondary network.
00:43 The production of cooling can be done in different ways.
00:46 Refrigeration units, which use electricity and are cooled by outside air, or the district
00:52 cooling system via a local cold source such as a river.
01:00 The system can be equipped with a reserve cooling capacity in the form of ice.
01:05 Produced during the night, it is used for cooling during the warmest hours of the day,
01:09 which reduces the consumption of electricity.
01:13 The advantages of a network cooling system are that it consumes two times less energy
01:18 and half as much greenhouse producing refrigerants than individual air conditioners.
01:24 It also avoids the heat island effect, which is amplified by individual air conditioners.
01:30 The limits of the district cooling networks are that they are difficult to integrate into
01:35 the existing urban landscape and must use electricity which is more or less decarbonised
01:40 depending on the source.
01:42 [Music]
01:44 [Music fades]
01:46 [Music fades]
01:48 [BLANK_AUDIO]