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Comment by asah | Hacker News Reader

We just need these in Manhattan! LoL

Seriously, the concrete jungle is a big pain for cooling because the cement absorbs heat and radiates it, so after a few hot days in a row it's really tough to cool sans A/C. If the power went out, I'd probably go to the basement? But if it were out for a week+, pretty sure we'd recreate an urban version of The Ministry for the Future. :-(

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Does Manhattan suffer from heat soak in the underground?

I know in London, the Underground has generated so much heat over so many years, it no longer cools in Summer but instead retains heat overnight meaning it's sweltering even deep underground in many stations for much of the year. https://www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/cooling-the-tube-engine...

It's always somewhat surprising to me that given a bit of time, a seemingly inexhaustible resource like heat capacity of the ground or ground water can actually be depleted once we put our minds to using it.

  > It's always somewhat surprising to me that given a bit of time, a seemingly inexhaustible resource like heat capacity of the ground or ground water can actually be depleted once we put our minds to using it.

Or the ability of the atmosphere to just "disappear" all that ICE exhaust.

The NYC subway is pretty much all cut-and-cover and doesn't have many tunnelled parts like the deep-level Tube lines.

Toronto uses the [Deep Lake Water Cooling System](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_Lake_Water_Cooling_System) to extract "cold" from lake water before it is treated and used for drinking water.

Sucks for the “free” cooling we get from cool tap water.

Takes a little load off the water heater I do have to admit. Unless you have a heat-pump based system, which is the trend…

It has nothing to do with tap water, they provided false information. It is pulling cold water from the lake, running it through heat exchangers throughout the system, then the cold liquid at each system is used to cool the buildings, etc. The slightly warmer water goes back into the lake, not into the drinking water system.

Incorrect. The heat exchangers are a part of the city water intake.

Edit: looks like a bit of both? See pg. 6:

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/963d-ppfa-...

Though the city drinking water is pulled from deeper out so probably that supply is cooler to begin with:

https://www.toronto.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/963d-ppfa-...

It is not used for drinking water, and the link you shared also doesn't mention that, but it is an interesting system that should be used in more places.

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