Ground-Water Cooling System On The London Underground

What is the Issue? 144 years since service’s began and for much of the network poor ventilation systems have been used across the underground network. Temperatures in Summer have reached 47 degrees. 3 million people daily need to travel safely. Something needs to be done!! 253 Miles of track 275 Stations

Is The London Underground A DANGER To Your Health? High Volumes of Trains Deeply ventilated tube tunnels The actual body heat given of from passengers The Problems that lead to dangerously high temperatures

The Sustainable Technology to help keep the London Underground Cool Ground Water Cooling System The water supply, which has a temperature of around 12ºC, is pumped through a network of pipes to the heat exchange units to the Victoria line platforms. The heat exchange units have fans which will draw in the warm station air and through the heat exchange, with the pumped water, will supply cooled air to the tunnels and the trains will spread this cooled air to the platform area. Diagram of the System used at London Victoria.

Extractor fan at Victoria Station Ventilation fan on a tube train The 1 st major system was installed and tried over the summer of 2006 at London’s Victoria. So what effects has is had?

How do the train vent’s distribute cool air This diagram demonstrates how turbines that lie on top of the carriages suck in air to cool the train.

So has the technology been put in place made a difference? OR IS IT TO EARLY TO SAY…? Reduced ventilation rates will mean that temperatures can reach 28 degrees and at around 80% humidity this is far to inefficient for passenger comfort This though does show that passenger comfort can be improved with increases in air change rates, thus making temperatures more suitable for travel

How Environmentally Friendly has the underground been in recent years? Official TFL Environmental report /2007 ? This table shows how over the last 7 years that there are still variations in how much energy is being used or saved on the underground. But Most importantly C02 emissions have greatly reduced by more than 200,000 tonnes. The underground also produced nearly 17% of renewable energy. These two factors will not increase either with the groundwater technology in place as water is a renewable & non damaging energy.

…Yes, Its to early! A work in progress…. · Cooling the London underground only began last year! · It will take many more to start having significant changes across the entire network. · Air cooling systems on the Circle, District, Hammersmith & City & Metropolitan line will start to be put in place from · By 2010 the 1 st air-conditioned trains are expected on the Met line.

References (2006) The TFL environmental report, Retrieved Nov 2007 from pdf Thompson, J.A. Evaluation of underground railway networks operating sustainable cooling systems, Retrieved Nov 2007 from Maidment, Dr G.G & Missenden, Dr J.F. Sustainable cooling schemes for the London Underground railway network, Retrieved Nov 2007 from / (2007) Groundwater Cooling Trial at London Victoria, Retrieved Nov 2007 from