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My buddy, Fred, was over for a visit and the talk turned to steam. Fred works for Consolidated Edison in New York City. Con Ed provides the electricity and steam for about a billion buildings. “A lot of people say that Con Ed has the largest district heating system in the world,” Fred said, “but I hear there’s a bigger one in Russia.” “I’m pretty sure that’s a district hot water system over there,” I said. “You sure?”
“Dan, The heating plant is a single boiler, usually oil-fired, and they keep it in a garage-type structure. It supplies hot water through a continuous circulation system underground. Cast-iron radiators are in the buildings, which the government owns. There are no thermostats in the buildings, but the rooms never get warm enough, anyway. It’s chilly over there!” Christian Egli then posted a terrific article that had appeared in the Moscow Times on August 7, 2003. Here’s a bit of that:
“But the shutoff that often bewilders foreigners unfamiliar with the peculiarities of Moscow life might not always be an annual tradition: Engineers say a solution is in sight. “However, it might take 200 years before your neighborhood has hot water all year round. “Moscow Heating Network, the subsidiary of Mosenergo in charge of the main pipes that ship steamy-hot water from electric power plants to neighborhood heat-exchange points, sees the city's savior in a new pipe that is resistant to rust -- the main culprit that forces it to turn off hot water for repairs every summer.
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“One way to find out,” I said. I walked into my office here at home (I spend most of my days staring at a birdfeeder), and asked the question on The Wall at HeatingHelp.com. I asked the question at 11:33 AM and got an answer from Jim Sokolovic at 11:37. Jim said that he had co-workers in Russia and that he would ask them. What specifically did I want to know? I told him that I wanted to know if it was steam, hot water or a combination of both. He got back to me at 11:55 with this:
“It's summer, and your hot water is turned off again.| Dan Holohan - [Intro] | [Email] | [Website] |
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