back to article Dearly departed to heat Manchester crematorium

A Manchester crematorium where "grieving friends and relatives have complained of the cold during services" will tackle the problem by using the "body heat" generated in the incineration process to crank up the temperature, the Telegraph reports. Tameside Council says the energy output is enough to fire Dukinfield Crematorium' …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    What about...

    frozen kittens?

  2. Chris Morrison
    Flame

    Why?

    Why is this news worthy? The crematorium have clearly just wanted to gain some publicity from this.

    We have a furnace, we have some water, wow look if we pass the water over the furnace we get hot water!

    Good idea but kind of dull. Could they not just have gone ahead and done it and not bothered asking anyone how they feel? Especially grieving irrational people.

  3. Ian Algie

    hmmmm

    I wonder why they don't consider fuelling it with frozen dogs?

  4. David Harper

    A new green energy source?

    For heavens' sake don't let the green energy lobby get wind of this idea. I can see the ads now: "Electricity bills too high? Then why not switch to Soylent Energy!"

  5. Dimitrov

    Think green

    In face of the upcoming environmental Armageddon, I believe the greenest thing they can do to heat the premise is to burn hippies. That way they'll save lots of gas, petrol, coal and other creations of the devil, while at the same time will save the planet from the CO2 the hippies would otherwise produse by breathing.

  6. Michael
    Flame

    frozen dogs?

    stupid idea, just use dead ones, don't bother freezing them.

    Dead horses would be useful as there is a distinct lack glue factories around there...

  7. Steve Foster
    Joke

    CHP?

    Ah, is this the first generation of these new CHP local power plants we keep hearing about then?

    I guess it comes under the heading of "biomass" ...

  8. Ali McGowan
    Go

    Errrmmm

    Publicity? Are you serious? 'Hey everyone, hurry up and get dying!!!'...

    I think it's a great idea as it goes - and right of them to put this out to consultation - imagine the backlash if they DIDN'T?

  9. Tim
    Pirate

    Oh no not Oliver Reid!!

    Cripes, how hot would it get when they cremate alcoholics.

    Global warming? PAH- its the local crem!

  10. Louis Cowan
    Stop

    Can sometimes go too far

    How far are we going to go - pissing into hot water bottles? Colostomy bags in the shape of body suits so as not to waste heat??

    (Ian, you from Saltcoats??)

  11. supermeerkat
    Flame

    When my dad finally kicks the bucket...

    ...there's no way he'd want to provide comfort to the living. He'd much prefer to provide discomfort, as he does in life. He'd probably want a handful of his ashes to be flung in the face of each person attending the service. Miserable sod.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not a new idea..

    .. but a previous "idea" was pretty repugnant. There was at least one German concentration camp (in the Alsace) where the furnaces used to burn the bodies of murdered prisoners heated the water for amongst other things, the showers for the guards.

  13. Bob
    Thumb Up

    But where will it end?

    Next we'll be burning Chav's in full burberry to produce more heat....

    ...carry on!

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    bad idea

    Bad idea, imagine all those poor souls thinking their going to their idea of Heaven only to end up stuck in the heat exchanger coil of the heating system. Mark my words the capacity of the system is limited and one day the pressure of all the souls trying to get out of the heat exchanger will be too great for the system to hold and a portal will be ripped between worlds.

  15. Andy G
    Flame

    Simple answer then . .

    . . just freeze grandad before sticking him in the oven. Even MORE heat will therefore be produced thus keeping the place warmer longer.

    now if we turn all our coal / oil fired powerstations into monster crems, we 'kill' two birds with one stone do we not ???

    just a thought !!!

    ( oh, the avatar seemed sonehow appropriate lol )

  16. Karl Lattimer

    RE: A new green energy source?

    Soylent energy IS PEOPLE!

    Had to be done!

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Hot stuff...

    Haven't even taken my coat off

  18. Matthew Smith
    Flame

    Solve the pensioners heating credit problem

    Never mind Gordon Brown giving old biddies handouts to heat their homes over Christmas. All they need do is sling their friend Doris onto the fireplace. Sorted.

  19. paul lewis

    Not Worried

    My Grandad was cremated here, he would have laughed his @rse off.....and yes it was cold

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    Origins

    The origin of almost all of the heat is the gas used to provide the extremely hot flame that is needed to dispose of the remains. Human bodies are not combustible material (being mostly water). Except for really fat ones, and they need to have a wick to burn properly rather than just char.

    Even hippies contribute to greenhouse gases when they are burned or buried.

  21. Andy
    Coat

    Think green?

    Is this energy as green as Soylent green?

    We need to think carefully about the potential cost of this energy source.

  22. Dazzer
    Pirate

    @Chris Morrison

    Why does a crematorium need publicity?

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Coat

    Ahh....

    .. maybe i can use this to heat my house now the boiler is knackered, all i need is some dead people.....

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Think

    It should be done on a commercial scale. If all power stations were adapted to become corpse-burning, coupled with the efficient air scrubbers which crematoria are equipped with, it could be very cost-effective, cheap power.

    The ash that's left gets recycled into fertiliser and is used to grow CO2 -absorbing replacement trees in?

    I'm all for it.

  25. An ominous cow herd

    Would they consider using frozen deers?

    Good bang for the buck, or so I'm told...

    Coat and hat please, yes, the one with the antlers...

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    But Officer......

    ....I was soooo cold! Surely no one will miss a few dead pensioners?

  27. Dean Burrows
    Alert

    hmmm..

    I wonder why the council didnt use frozen dogs?

  28. Rhys
    Dead Vulture

    where do you stack them

    to dry and season? thats gotta be the smelly part. wet wood is hopeless, it needs to dry out a bit first, why should people be different?

  29. Tim
    Boffin

    Typical priests knowing bugger all about science

    For obvious reasons basic science isn't part of a theology degree. Far from being a 'last act of generosity' it'll just mean the operators have to turn up the burner a bit higher to heat the radiators as well. It's bloody hard to burn a human body, as anyone who's tried to dispose of a cheating partner in a campfire will know. They certainly won't give out any excess heat because they have virtually no fuel content.

    I don't see any ethical issues in surrounding the oven with pumped central heating pipes to recapture lost heat. All the energy comes from burning gas, not the body. (Gas, of course, being nothing more than refined dead animals anyway.)

  30. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Re: Typical priests knowing bugger all about science

    > Far from being a 'last act of generosity' it'll just mean the operators have to

    > turn up the burner a bit higher

    Actually, they are planning to use the "lost" heat (ever touched the outside of a furnace? Even with insulation, it's still shit hot!), so there is no extra fuel used, just less waste. Win-win.

  31. myxiplx

    Good grief

    So you mean to tell me people have been sitting there freezing for all this time in a building that's basically designed as nothing more than a ruddy great furnace?

    The mind boggles.

  32. andy gibson
    Joke

    Brings a whole new meaning....

    to our maker saying "step into the light".

  33. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    One wonders...

    ...why they can't just pop in a few space heaters. Too obvious perhaps?

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Dead Vulture

    Nothing new...

    The old Egyptian railways used to burn mummies for fuel in the trains. The did it for years and years they were almost mined.

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