On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 13:21:26 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 12:44:13 -0400, wrote:

On Wed, 27 Oct 2010 08:51:50 -0400, wrote:



Mall of America in Minnesota has no central heating plant. There is
spot heating in a few areas, such as the entrance, but the main mall,
located in the frozen land of Minnesota, doesn't require any help
other than solar and body heat of shoppers, to maintain comfort in
gigantic spaces with sky-high ceilings.


You also need to take into account the heat generated by all of the
electrical equipment, lights etc in that mall. That will be far more
than the 300 BTU per person you get from the shoppers.

Yeah, that must make up for the lack of a central heating system!
Obviously that's what keeps the mall at 65 degrees when the outside
temps are 30 or 40 below zero.

Many large commercial buildings use the lighting for heat. They don't get
turned off. Also note that the heat loss of a building goes up as the ~2/3s
power of the floorspace (larger building less heat per sq.ft.).