This is how UK is going to use rivers to heat millions of homes

By Newsgram Staff Writer

Soon British rivers will be heating millions of homes. England's Energy Secretary Ed Davey is trying to promote water-source heat pumps; carbon-free devices that extract thermal energy from waterways to heat water for radiators and showers.

The technology is already in use in Scandinavian countries where heat from nearby rivers and canals is pumped into houses.

He has identified more than 4,000 rivers, estuaries, coastal sites and canals with water warm and accessible enough to heat more than a million homes in the vicinity, the Independent reported.

The technology is not only clean and renewable but cheap too. It will allegedly slash power bills of Brits by 20%.

'We need to make the most of the vast amount of clean, renewable heat that lays dormant and unused in our rivers, lakes and seas' the Independent quoted the Secretary.

The heating systems used in Britain will be more effective than the ones used in the Scandinavian countries. The new systems developed by scientists at Mitsubishi and Mike Spenser-Morris, a London property developer and director of the Zero Carbon Partnership can create 45C heat and cover a wider area.

The system requires a network of pipes running 2 meters below the surface of the water where the temperature is about 8C to 10C. These pipes are filled with a solution of water and anti-freeze which is heated by the warmer water outside the pipe and pumped into the house.