KING COUNTY, Wash. — “It does not smell!” That’s what King County Waste Management is saying about a pilot program using sewage to keep businesses warm.
It’s going to start this winter but the county already has its first customer, a real estate equities company in South Lake Union.
Right now, the company’s 1.6 million-square-foot campus keeps warm using heat from sewage.
It works because the sewage pipe transfers heat to the building’s pipes but the two never mix.
Warm and hot wastewater flushed from homes and businesses is a significant energy source.
The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that 350 billion kilowatt-hours of heat energy are flushed down the drains in the U.S. every year. That’s roughly enough to power 30 million homes.
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