Manhattan Steam Explosion

[toggleswitch]

Dirt and germs are her personal enemy. It's tiring just

Thank you for the good wishes.

The woman deserves a break after decades of gardening, shoveling snow and maintenace as well as traditional "housewife" duties extrodinaire.

 

[oxydolfan1]

"Perhaps we think to think about updating our
infrastructure."

That would seem to be the common-sense approach, but you have to remember the immensity of such an undertaking. You know from living here, that when one pothole gets filled, there's pandemonium! Another problem is that any money that gets allocated for capital improvement projects disappear quickly into the pockets of the politicians and crooked contractors.....everything is "Homeland Security", "Homeland Security", and even that money vanishes without anything meaningful having been done.

For instance, several capital improvement projects to rebuild the subway, which was getting better ten years ago, have long ceased to be. Basic maintenance is non-existent (last week I was clocked by a falling piece of painted plaster on the staircase), and the city council recently agreed that, in the absence of realistically being able to refurbish the stations in the foreseeable future, they will instead paint every station, so that the ridership "feels" less depressed.

BTW, this little exercise in futility will take an estimated ten years.

So, it's not even just the pipes, the electrical grid, the overjammed streets, the transit system going (back) to the dogs, etc. It's the confluence of all these factors together that make restoration seem insurmountable (and another issue is that they don't really restore, but replace with some structure that won't last thirty years, much less a hundred...)

I'm sorry. Can you tell I'm down on the city this morning?

 

[hoover1060]

One of my branches

is right across the street from where this happened, they have no power, and the network and phones are out. I'm trying to talk to the assistant manager now, he's using his cell phone...

Not going to be a fun month end with them!

 

[toggleswitch]

~I wonder if the "Rent a Chiller" businesess will work out here.

Technically yes. I have seen this done not only in FL but here in NYC.

"Parking" it, (finding a physical place to put it on the streets)--- AHHHH that's the issue. We won't even begin discuss the hell of getting an oil/diesel delivery truck to re-fuel it.

 

[fa_f3_20]

Sulfur smell

In a lot of steam and circulating water heating/cooling systems, they put a bit of sulfuric acid in. It keeps the Legionnaire's disease bacteria from growing in the water.

 

[tolivac]

The 'rent-a-chiller" isn't fuel powered-its powered from the buildings electric system.But now see what you mean-where to park it?

 

[toggleswitch]

HOW much for that?

IIRC I have seem both electric and fuel-fired versions.

One does not want to use electricity in summer in Manhattan if possible (to use another source of energy)in that demand metering has punitive rates for the greatest electrical demand over any 15 minute period.

Our rent-a-boiler(s) are trailers with oil-fired heaters that link into a building's heating system. Similar idea.

Many Manhattan buildngs use city steam for heating. You can't easily put a boiler on the roof of a tall buildng. Getting the fuel to the top is difficult and perhaps unsafe. You can't put a boiler in the basement of a skyscraper in that venting the thing is a nightmare due to distance nvolved and the cooling/condensing of the water-vapour and the corrosive gases in the effluent.

CH4 + O2 => CO2 + H2O + heat

methane (natural gas) + oxygen yields carbon dioxide + water vapour + heat. Other impurites in the fuel give off sufuric and nitrous oxides as well.

City steam is more expensive, but generally safer (within the building; no carbon-monixide fears) and cuts the need for engineers/ maintennce staff. It can easly be converted to hot water for the taps and hot water for heating. It is used for cooling and perhaps to power emergency generators as well.

Manhattan is normally 2 to 3 *F warmer than surrounding areas due to steam pipes below the streets and the huge volume of energy/heat used in a concentrated/small area. (The island itself).

 

[toggleswitch]

I worked on 42nd Street

a block or two from the expolsion site.

I spoke with a former co-worker who is still working there. She said the event scared the bejeezus out of her and she high-tailed it outta there ASAP.She said it was the loudest sound she had ever heard.

Between Grand Central terminal (railroad), The United Nations complex and the Israeli Consulate right there [all prime targets], ya dont walk when ya hear *KAOOM* ya RUN.

 

[sudsmaster]

Manhattan is normally 2 to 3 *F warmer

Interesting stuff, Toggs. I have read that most cities are a degree or two warmer than the surrounding areas because all the concrete and pavement tends to trap heat, whereas greenery tends to cool the air by virtue of the constant evaporation of water from the leaf surfaces. Plus some of the solar energy is turned into organic matter.

In any case, I hadn't thought of the problems involved with heating and cooling a skyscraper with conventional gas fired boilers. This is probably why most skyscrapers (or what passes for one out here) I've seen on the west coast have little annexes at ground level where the boilers etc. are sited - so that they can vent the exhaust without having to go up 40 or more stories. I guess there's enough room out here to do that, whereas in Manhattan every square foot of the earth's surface is of limited availability, esp. in the more "desirable" areas.

I last visited Manhattan in 1974. I was pleasantly surprised that the various intriguing aromas I had experienced as a child when we visited came right back to me. Esp. down by the waterfront at Battery street (on the way to see the Statue). But the din at night - even on the 9th floor of an apartment building - during the summer with the windows open - amazed me. To me it was like living under a freeway!. Eventually I got used to it, though, until it was time to hightail it back to the left coast.

 

[toggleswitch]

Yes, I had not thought of all those surfaces being warmed by the sun as well.

I worked on the 78th floor of the Empire State Buildng not too long ago. It is an older building with now very rare OPERABLE windows. Due to the height the building, the heating system (city steam source) is a TWO-PIPE steam- [blow and suck.] This helps gets the steam where it needs to be without exessive pressure in the building.

The cental air-condtioning was added later, and as you stated, is located adjacent to the subject property. Due to the cost of the land and (old) improvements [buildngs] that A/C system must have cost dearly.