Question for NYC DUers: Why are there steam pipes under the streets?

[karlrschneider]

I mean what is their purpose...I realize if they were above the streets they would be in the way. :silly:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

1. Here Ya Go.

http://en.allexperts.com/q/New-York-112/New-York-Steam-Pipes.htm

[karlrschneider]

5. Interesting. Apparently it drives ancient air-cycle heat exchangers for summer cooling.

How ...uh, modern.

[C_U_L8R]

2. Back in the days of coal furnaces

steam heat was installed across the city.

can you imagine how polluted it would be
without it?

[TwilightGardener]

3. Not from NYC, but I heard they had been installed in 1924 on TV tonight.

I can't for the life of me figure out why steam is still considered a utility except in some old buildings with boilers.

[Warpy]

9. Actually, if a building is hooked up to the Con Ed steam system

they don't need boilers. Pollution is confined to the steam generation plant, not spread all over the city. Steam in the summer is also used for cooling systems and is usually more cost efficient than maintaing a boiler in winter and a rooftop AC in summer.

[TwilightGardener]

11. Ah, thank you.

[aquart]

4. Heating, air conditioning, I forget the other thing they said.

It's under intense pressure. That 20 inch pipe was laid in 1924. We aren't used to the kind of hard rain we've been getting. Cold water meets steam pipe...seems to cause explosion.

Right now we're waiting to see if asbestos is all over.

[TwilightGardener]

7. Why, though, is it piped throughout the city, instead of individual buildings

relying on their own boiler/steam systems?

[cal04]

6. heating and cooling for thousands of buildings

New York''s steam system is the largest in the world, with 105 miles of mains and pipes and 3,000 steam manholes. The network serves more than 100,000 commercial and residential establishments in Manhattan from the Battery to 96th Street.

Millions of pounds of steam are pumped beneath city streets every hour, heating and cooling thousands of buildings, including the Empire State Building.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/wire/newyork/ny-nyblas0719,0,4341729.story?page=2&coll=ny-main-bigpix

[CK_John]

8. Steam heats almost all building from midtown down to the battery. Con Ed

steam plant in the east 30's run pipes all over lower Man.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. I had to keep the windows open in winter,

Manhattan steam heat was the bomb. Pun intended. Cheap too.

[Me.]

16. Yep, Windows Open In Winter

Always are.

The infrastructure of the city is wearing down. Two weeks ago the main water pipe (the one that connects to the city pipe) in my 1929 building broke and we were without all water for over 2 days.

[Donnachaidh]

12. I'd like to know how much maintenance was CUT during Guiliani's

and Bloomberg's mayorships.

The city has known about these pipes for years. Soooo, have they been regularly maintained? Or were the cost-cutting Mayors like Rudy and the rest finding ways to ignore the older stuff that needs regular maintenance?

[TwilightGardener]

14. Hmmm. Does anyone smell a lawsuit coming?

[Donnachaidh]

17. well, the reports are saying one known death

I can see someone asking hard questions as to maintenance. A 24 inch pipe is not something that can be easily overlooked, can it?

[Sparkly]

13. I remember discussions of how old the city's underground infrastructure was, years ago...

When I lived there, there were a lot of "manhole blowings" -- sorry, that sounds wrong -- manhole covers blasting out. "Another manhole cover blew today"... They said on the news this would keep happening because of the aging whatever-is-under the manhole covers. :shrug:

[Xipe Totec]

15. Because if they were above ground, the kill radius would be larger nt

[Ready4Change]

18. Free steam pressed pants for everyone!

That's why Wall Street is there. Free steam pressed pants.

[EFerrari]

21. Darn! I thought they were underground opium dens!

[A HERETIC I AM]

19. This doesnt apply in the summer but many northern cities force steam through storm drains to keep

them from freezing solid in the winter. Seems to me most northern cities have this sort of system in place.

[Cassandra]

20. One of the Hermiones...

Gingold or Baddley (sp?) said that it proved that New York had been built over the gates of Hell.