Panontario
Active Member
Thank you for your kind clarification. This was always been a mystery to me because of the conflicting information I've been reading. Based on the information I've seen before, I thought that chilled Lake Ontario water is being used directly to cool closed-circuit systems in various buildings. I didn't realize that lake water is not returned back to the lake or used for other purposes. I now understand that it gets "re-chilled" using exchange with a municipal tap water.I was pulling from this Star article:
Enwave looks to expand deep lake water cooling
Enwave says it’s looking to expand its district energy systems in Toronto and e as new owner Brookfield takes over from the City of Toronto and OMERSwww.thestar.com
" Enwave is unusual in that it uses drinking water as the coolant. Other systems dump heated water back into the lake from which it’s drawn — leading to concerns about environmental damage. Flowing the heat into the drinking water supply avoids that problem."
It's a closed heat exchange system, so the tap water isn't actually the coolant, it's just where the "waste heat" ends up, instead of immediately back in the lake. That was the constraint that necessitated this tank (no more heat sink capacity in the municipal water supply).
Thanks
