The Future Of Cool Water In Lake Ontario

Deep water source cooling (DWSC) is a new technology that eliminates the need for conventional air conditioning. It involves using a large body of cool water as a heat sink in a heat exchange system. This technology has applications for areas including massive heat generating building thus it necessitates that these large buildings demanding for air conditions are built near a “deep, cold body of water and payback times are vary depending on the site” (Levi). The city of Toronto is capable of withdrawing cool water form large bodies of water such as Lake Ontario and transferring the water to these large building through pipes. The water behaves as a substitute for air conditioner and cools the buildings. Once the water has been used for its

The City of Toronto DLWC system utilizes the highly dense cold water as a cooling solution. In the summer, the water heats up at the surface but it is not dense enough to sink to the bottom thus it remains in the surface and the water in the depths is still cold and dense. Through a period, this phenomenon has developed a reservoir of the water that always remains cold at the bottom of the lake making water a renewable energy source through frequent re-stocking. Moreover, there are three pipes 5km long that connect the bottom of the lake (83 meters in depth) to the filtration plant for water intake and flow. (Acciona). The heat transfer process at Toronto’s Jhon street pumping station promotes the act of the cooling of the warm water in the air conditioners to be cooled by the lake water and cycle back again. Thus, the water being used for this process moves along to the city’s potable water system. Heat can only be pumped from one place to another however; deep lake water-cooling saves almost 90% of the electricity used for air conditioning. It can also save million of gallons of water each year for clean water that would otherwise be used to transfer heat out in the atmosphere in traditional chiller plants.

As the heat sink gets colder, heat pump efficiency is improved and it reduces the electrical demand of large cooling systems. This aslo allows higher thermodynamic efficiency that results in less electricity used. Another impact DWSC is that it saves energy during peak load times. Moreover, DWSC is very energy efficient as it only allows 0.1% of the average energy required by the convention cooler system. Its cost is also expected to be much lower. This new development is environmental friendly, as it does not disturb the natural cycles or does not use any ozone-depleting refrigerant. Deep water-cooling also reduces carbon dioxide emissions also removes thousands of harmful refrigerants from customer building. However, to gain all this, a large, cool body of water in the surrounding. Furthermore, this technology cannot be used everywhere as it requires specific condition that can only be met in specific areas. Lastly, this technology lo requires a great amount of source for its production. Mostly people are happy with this new technology as. People are saying “For Toronto, it’s a win-win-win situation: cooler and cleaner drinking water, more clean, cool air for big buildings, and less smog.” - Natural Resources