Why New York Is Powered By Steam - NYC Revealed

Many don't know it, but New York is a city that runs on steam. 27 billion pounds of it per year, in fact. It's one of the few cities that relies on the old, but reliable, technology to heat some of its most famous buildings.

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[cheddar]

This is the last episode for this season of NYC Revealed. You can watch all episodes in their entirety on CuriosityStream Thanks SO MUCH for watching!

[Cooe.]

Glad to see the old' in-house Discovery TV host/voice actor is still getting work in this post-TV world we live in! Way to go dude!

[aerotheepic]

Honestly I’ve lived in NYC my whole life and didn’t realize how big steam was. Of course I’ve seen the smokestacks all over but I never really questioned the origins of the steam or what it’s purpose was other than to be vented into the street lol

[deatha]

True innovating idea to use steam for all those buildings as it can be very versatile. Saves space from needing appliances to create their own heating and any leaks will just leave water.

[ShawnLH]

as someone with engineering degrees i love this nyc series

well done

[peterthepanda]

“NYC is powered by Steam”

Gaben will be pleased. 😁

[llwang]

I've never realized New York is such a steampunk city.

[pilotavery]

The cool thing is that you can actually use this for air conditioning as well. Steamjet air conditioning was fairly common in large buildings in New York, high pressure steam was used to draw a vacuum and this vacuum lowered the pressure inside an aeration chamber that would quickly lower the boiling point a bit and this evaporation happened much quicker which would cool the water and the chilled water was pumped throughout the building through the radiators.

[lightningwingdragon]

Although I'm a born and (partly) bred New Yorker, I think what's just as impressive is how industrial London was powered hydrolically (cranes, lifts (elevators) etc) it was all powered by water pressure and gravity.

[Acemechanicalservices]

I used to work on pressure reduction stations in the buildings, and the heat exchangers. The noises they make are frightening if you don’t know what’s normal and what isn’t. Some of the heat exchangers look like huge submarines.

[champagne.future]

I thought this was an April Fools joke. I was like, “damn, you guys put a lot of effort into this”.

[ontoya]

New York City native here I use a steam stacks in order to tell the weather for today. If there's high pressure in the area then the steam will funnel up wards. If there is low pressure then the steam will lazily exit the stock and disperse closer to the ground

[ruzzelladrian]

My cousin and I walked through 59th Street along 5th Avenue, and she avoided the steam and was upset that I lured her to it. She thought that it was dirty smoke. And I had to explain to her that it’s just steam - nothing to worry about as it is water vapor. It smells bad? It just smells like boiling water. That’s it. Completely harmless. We’re literally breathing in a lot of particulate matter coming out of exhaust pipes from cars and it builds up inside our lungs, now that’s harmful. Remember, steam is just water.
Just think of it as a free humidifier for the streets. It brings down dust and moisturizes the dry air.

[picobyte]

Adsorbtion cooling made it all feasible.
The winter demand for heating made the whole system near idle during summer. So however inefficient, the airco demand filled up that hole for the show completely.

[lawrencelewis]

This is quite interesting-I have seen steam-powered shovels and pile drivers on construction sites in Manhattan as late as the early 1980s. I've seen a steam-powered dredge in the Hudson in the early 1990s. I used to be a boiler inspector in New York State and the vast majority of boilers used for building heat are steam boilers. A hot water boiler is fairly rare. I now live in Toronto, Canada and here the vast majority of heating boilers are hot water systems. Here, steam is mainly used in industry and rarely for building heating.
There are central heating plants here that send steam to downtown office buildings and condos but in those buildings the steam goes through heat exchangers where it heats hot water which is what is used for heating. There is also deep-lake cooling where cold water from Lake Ontario, where it is taken in from one mile out and is 34 degrees year round is used for building cooling. The discharge is then sent to the potable water plants.

Ajax, Ontario has a central steam heating system as that's where all the munition plants were during WW2 and having boilers in these plants would be quite dangerous. This system is still in use but on a much reduced basis from the 1940s.

[Pining_for_the_fjords]

"Why is there smoke coming out of your city, New York?"
"That isn't smoke. That's steam, steam from the steam power we're having. Mmmm steam power!"

[JamesD]

Out of all the times I went to New York I’m surprised I never noticed all the steam

[glori]

plants producing Stem are West 59th street, east 74th Street, east 59th street under 59th street bridge, east river station 14th st, Hudson ave station Brooklyn, Ravenswood station in Queensalso the Woolworth bldg in lower manhattan!!!I worked in all of them! as a Welder and Mechanic!

[wv]

Great video but please lower the music volume in the audio mix. The music is often overpowering and makes it really difficult to hear dialogue properly.

[VictorStuber]

Is this the "How It's Made" voice??