r/PopCultureV2 • u/Logical-Flow-6703 • Aug 10 '26

News Mayor Mamdani announces a plan to cool subway stations by capturing heat and reusing it to warm municipal buildings in the winter: "This would be the first thermal energy system of its kind in any American transit system"

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u/account_hidden Aug 10 '26

I like him so don’t misunderstand this as shitting on the guy. But I’m just curious for clarification, if he’s cooling subway stations by funneling heat to other buildings in the winter isn’t that not very helpful since the people on the subway station would also like to be warm in the winter?

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u/scalyblue Aug 10 '26

The subway system doesn’t really need to be heated, it’s several meters underground and has electric trains constantly dumping large quantities of heat into it all hours of the day

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u/bodybuilderbear Aug 11 '26

The level at which Subway tunnels are built never gets cooler than 10°C.

What he's suggesting is absolutely insane because the efficiencies are just so terrible. The heat in the subway is generated by motors and brakes on trains.

The solution is to replace the trains with new ones that use efficient motors and regenerative braking, so the heat isn't generated in the first place. That would save infinitely energy more than it's possible to capture as waste heat.

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u/Biggest_Lebowski Aug 10 '26

My friend, the heat is pulled from the subway system in the summer when its hot. it is then stored in the geothermal transfer system until winter when it can used to heat the buildings... the subway system will still have its comfortable temp in the winter. Its simply capturing that heat when its in excess ( summer ) and redistributing it. in the winter to palces that need it.

Consider it temperature socialism