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Comment by 71a54xd | Hacker News Reader

The irony is most of the industrial energy used in NYC to spin the pumps and fans in HVAC and thermal energy provided for heating water in boilers / air in NYC comes from steam generation plants. I used to live next to one near w58th street. For those who don't know, these massive facilities as large as power plants (some historically protected) run on natural gas!

Although, it did boggle the mind how my luxury 2br apt (built in 2018) had a gas stove with only a small "suck" vent (return air of sorts that just vents to the roof)in each bathroom. If I ran the stove too long I'd set the fire alarm off from carbon monoxide and particulate in the air. So I'm actually a big proponent of doing this for indoor air quality.

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If buildings were required by code to have a more "fume hood"-like setup for capturing exhaust (with supply and return paths maintaining flow) then it would lead to better indoor air quality. As a bonus this is even a good idea anyway for electric stoves since it keeps any smells and smoke from leaving the kitchen area.

They ARE required by code and have been for years. Parent's "luxury" apartment was not built to code. Probably one of those illegal NYC apartments where you tear open the walls and there's a whole other furnished room inside that isn't shown on the blueprints.

Is there a possibility that very old buildings are grandfathered in with existing ducts? Maybe they should be required to upgrade that.

It's very possible, and might be impossible to upgrade a large multi unit building. In most jurisdictions a large renovation would force you to upgrade such things. In this case I would assume simply disallowing a gas stove without proper venting. Though I suspect the permitting process in NYC resembles something out of The Sopranos, assuming the proper permits were obtained.

If the videos that Louis Rossmann makes discussing New York's government mirror others' experiences, you are probably right.

Also bad for insulation, since it's mostly an open hole to the outside in your kitchen

SF also has steam generation downtown. I learned about it 5 days ago here on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35676878

Is that to say there's a municipal steam power system of some sort? That's pretty alien to me, but it reminds me that there was a municipal hydraulic system in London before the advent of electricity that industrial users used for energy.

I think that comment is just referring to power plants using steam turbines to generate electricity. But there is also a stream distribution system in NYC. My apartment complex has heat and hot water from Con Edison (power company) steam.

I was referring to a steam distribution system, burning nat gas to produce steam which then powers HVAC / heating in the city.

It's pretty common in other parts of Europe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_heating#Market_penetr...

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