The Mall of America Does Not Have a Central Heating System
March 2, 2010 at 12:35 am Chad Upton 6 comments
In case you’re not familiar with the Mall of America, it’s a 2.5 million sq. ft. shopping center in Bloomington Minnesota, a suburb of the “Twin Cities” (Minneapolis and Saint Paul). The mall opened in 1992 and contains more than 520 stores, two seven story parking garages with a total of 20,000 parking spaces, a giant aquarium and of course an indoor amusement park.
Photo by Dave Wallick
I was there in 1993 on a big family road trip and it was amazing. A building of this size seems like it should have a massive heating system to stay comfortable during winter months. But, the architects had a much more creative solution in mind.
The mall entrances do have heaters between the double doors for comfort, but the common areas are heated in three other ways:
- Solar Radiation (Skylights)
- Lighting Fixture Heat
- People
Yes, the skylights let in light which is converted into heat (think of it like a giant green house). The lighting fixtures give off heat, which is typically considered waste energy, but is an important part of heating the building. The people inside generate a lot of heat too. In fact, the guests generate enough heat during peak winter hours that the air conditioning system runs full blast to keep the mall comfortable.
Considering the age of this mall, this is a forward thinking concept — it reduces their need for energy, which saves money and keeps our valuable energy resources available for making lattes and watching The View.
Another little known (and ironic) fact: the Mall of America is owned and operated by Canadians. The Ghermezian family also owns West Edmonton Mall, which is 30% larger than Mall of America, sporting the world’s largest indoor water park; an ice rink; 800+ stores; an aquarium and the world’s largest indoor amusement park with 24 rides, including the largest indoor roller coaster. A planned expansion to Mall of America will make it larger than West Edmonton Mall.
Broken Secrets
Written By: Chad Upton
Sources: Mall of America, West Edmonton Mall
Photo: Dave Wallick (creative commons)
Entry filed under: Be Efficient, Be Green, Hacks, Travel. Tags: america, edmonton, energy, green, heat, kinetic, mall, minneapolis, minnesota, saint paul, west.
1.
cole | April 15, 2010 at 11:06 pm
That is really amazing, especially given the age
2.
Nate | April 27, 2010 at 11:38 am
This is how Boeing heats up the largest building on earth (by volume). The Boeing manufacturing plant in Everett, WA has no heaters, just those huge lights that keep the place warm in the winter.
3.
central heating installation | September 3, 2010 at 2:50 am
Really a nice work…..
4.
DuhEnlightenedOne | October 30, 2010 at 10:27 am
Running the a/c in winter makes no sense because you can just open the doors and passively vent the warm air up through vents and opened skylights.
5.
Micah | November 6, 2010 at 2:58 pm
They don’t actually run the “AC” in winter, like you might think. Air conditioning in large spaces is much more complicated than a residential system, and much of this is due to ventilation and humidity control requirements. At Mall of America, they have a complicated automated climate control system that monitors all aspects of the interior AND exterior climate conditions and responds accordingly. If the building gets too hot in winter and the outside conditions are acceptable, the air handling systems will pull in outside air and vent inside air. They will rarely use mechanical cooling unless the outside ambient conditions are unacceptable (for instance, too humid).
6.
Micah | November 6, 2010 at 3:07 pm
Also, it was alluded to in the article, but most of the individual stores in the mall have separate HVAC systems which include heating.