Crematorium to heat water for town's swimmers

Nothing like the scent of chlorine and burning flesh to get me in the mood for a good swim.

I'd rather not know that, personally. In fact, not sure I'd be swimming in a pool next to a crematorium in the first place.

Originally posted by quackers
Burying dead folk in a hole in the ground is pretty much just a waste of space.

When people are buried in the ground, their bodies nourish an ecosystem. When they are cremated, they pollute the air and use energy during the burning.

Cremation seems more wasteful to me.

I think there is nothing wrong about using the residual heat for a good purpose...In fact i think its a sensible idea..But i have to admit the idea of swimming in this pool would turn me off knowing how it is heated..

Originally posted by Silver Star
I would point blank refuse to even dip my toe into this vile swimming pool.

Is nothing sacred anymore? First they come up with cremation as a convenient way of getting rid of your dead body (because they can't be bothered to bury you). Next they rig up the crematorium to the leisure centres heating system so that your corpse can at least be useful in reducing the local councils electricity bill. Before you know it we'll all be eating soylent green - mark my words.

We'd all better get used to the fact that life is becoming cheap in our supposedly developed western nations.

Are you from the US? If so then it might be hard to grasp that in the UK we have a tiny fraction of the space you do. The average cremation here costs around £2000. This is higher for burials and would be extremely high if everyone had them, I think the figures at the moment are around 80% cremations to 20% burial and other.

It's not a point of being bothered it's about the fact that if we buried 100% of people, the UK would be full of burial plots. Personally i'd not be bothered if I died and got used in this way, or any other useful way, it makes no difference once your dead. You're right in that there is nothing sacred anymore, mainly because there never was anything sacred. The only notion of sacred is what people put upon things, which doesn't actually mean anything.

Originally posted by JohnnyTHSeed

When people are buried in the ground, their bodies nourish an ecosystem. When they are cremated, they pollute the air and use energy during the burning.

Cremation seems more wasteful to me.

edit on 11-2-2011 by JohnnyTHSeed because: (no reason given)

And that energy used during the burning is also used to heat a pool that would have required heating anyway, two birds, one stone. As for the environmental impact of burial versus cremation, well I'm not sure that burial is a more eco-friendly way to dispose of a body. Toxins from a body, as well as the burial medium, contaminate the ground and enter the water table, where in cremation they are incinerated. Ash and other solid by-products are collected during the cremation process rather than just going up the stack, at least they are in more modern facilities. Incineration of metals in the body such as dental filling might be a concern but I would imagine that these would need to be kept within environmental safe limits.

Seems like a good idea, i don't really see the icky factor...it's just heat being created, i honestly don't care what happens to my body when i die...but if it can be put to use in an efficient way like this then go ahead, more useful than being thrown in a ditch i guess.

Originally posted by RRokkyy
I want to start up a SOLAR CREMATORY.
Just a bunch of computer controlled mirrors pointed at a black steel box.

You could use some magnifying glasses with it too.

Works well with ants...

So as you are being cremated does your family get to go for a memorial swim?

This reminds me of two words...


.... they're heeerrreeee........

I really don't see what the problem is! The person is dead, their soul has moved on and they could not care less what becomes of the waste heat from their cremation.

I am interested to see that cremation is rare in the USA. When my brother died at 42, and because our parents are long dead, and my brother had never married and never had children, I had to handle all the funeral stuff, I didn't want him to be cremated - but it turned out that we had no choice. Here in New Zealand, cremation costs around half what burial costs. That's why cremation is so common in New Zealand.
( The part I just could not be doing with, was the ashes. I got the funeral director to send them direct to my sister, who for some strange reason wanted them. When I die, I would prefer to be buried, but doubt very much that my family will be able to afford it, so meh. I doubt I will actually care.)

So, there it is, what's the problem with this swimming pool thing?
Vicky

reply to post by Silver Star


Once you're dead, you're not using your body anymore. You won't care if someone fills you with resin, scoops out your brain-meats, and uses you as an attractive planter; you'll be dead.

This weird attitude towards death and corpses is one of the most ridiculous parts of western culture. You're going to die, why fear it? Once you're dead, you don't care what happens to the meat and bone. Frankly I like the attitude of the "sky burials" found in India, Tibet, and Central Asia; once i'm dead put me out for the birds and the beetles; I'd rather my remains be useful for someone once i'm done with htem.

reply to post by JohnnyTHSeed


Well, actually, we pump so many preservatives into the body, then pack it in an air-right box, filled full of polyester padding and fabric, which is usually some very hard and treated substance. The "typical" burial thus never actually nourishes anything.

You want to nourish something, write into your funerary arrangements that you want to be buried in a linen shroud or something. You'll be food in a matter of weeks.

Its really creepy. But there is more to it than that. I just got this picture of Nazi Germany in mind and thought that would really be sick. I can imagine alot of people would not appreciate this, and that their sentiments actually count. People actually count and offending them over issues like this is just being a bully. One segment bullying the other and creating anguish in someone. Just such bad form. And the issue of how people disrespect people is more important than the heat source. For that matter, why not just channel it into the town's power supply?

In addition, there are many alternative energies the whole town could be using.

I think its completely reasonable, it be enviromentally friendly and we would be giving somethings back to the planet instead of just wasting the engery. Are people sentimental about flames?

Originally posted by Silver Star
I would point blank refuse to even dip my toe into this vile swimming pool.

Is nothing sacred anymore? First they come up with cremation as a convenient way of getting rid of your dead body (because they can't be bothered to bury you). Next they rig up the crematorium to the leisure centres heating system so that your corpse can at least be useful in reducing the local councils electricity bill. Before you know it we'll all be eating soylent green - mark my words.

We'd all better get used to the fact that life is becoming cheap in our supposedly developed western nations.

You may be misunderstanding the process.
Natural gas flames are used to burn the body. Much like the grille in your back yard only with burners on all sides. Just like your grille gets extremely hot on the outside so do the chambers. Instead of venting this waste heat outside, it's being collected and used for the pools. Since your body is 96% water it provides almost no heat.

Also the heat in your car comes from the exact same process.

There should be no 'creep' factor here.

Originally posted by samkent
You may be misunderstanding the process.
Natural gas flames are used to burn the body. Much like the grille in your back yard only with burners on all sides. Just like your grille gets extremely hot on the outside so do the chambers. Instead of venting this waste heat outside, it's being collected and used for the pools. Since your body is 96% water it provides almost no heat.

Hold up master! I'm 35 years old, not 3!

Consider this scenario (perhaps a trifle outlandish but the principle is the same): would you eat a hamburger cooked with the excess heat from a crematorium oven - channelled by means of some kind of hypothetical convection system from the crematorium to your BBQ?

Yes!

It’s just a heat exchanger. They are used everywhere.
Your house is heated by one (most likely).
The interior of your car is heated and cooled by one.

The water being heated is in tubes placed inside (or next to) the chamber. The water does not come in contact with any human remains or human dust. Your car parked outside is more likely to get human dust on it than the water in the pool.

You are just having a creep factor problem with it. The bodies are going to be burned anyway so you might as well get some secondary heat from the process. Consider it the green thing to do.

Originally posted by Silver Star


...would you eat a hamburger cooked with the excess heat from a crematorium oven - channelled by means of some kind of hypothetical convection system from the crematorium to your BBQ?

Why on earth not?
Vicky