Heating the Coldest Places on Earth

Though we may complain about the icy winters here in England, we have it pretty good when it comes to heating our homes. Almost every home in England can be heated with the simple push of a button, and when something goes wrong instant help is just a phone call with Commercial and Domestic Boiler Repairs.

It’s a very different world deep in the Southern Hemisphere. Spare a thought for the hardy and heroic researchers that live all year round in Vostok, a Russian research station in Antarctica. At - 89.2°C Vostok holds the record for the coldest permanently inhabited place on Earth. Now as you can imagine when heating fails at Vostok they can’t just call Commercial and Domestic Boilers to pop round for maintenance!

Newcomers gasp at Vostok, because although the station sits at 3,488 meters the low air pressure makes it seem like 5,000 meters. Thanks to its elevation Vostok is actually colder than the South Pole. For example if the atmosphere contained 100% Carbon Dioxide, it would snow C02 (Dry Ice) for it freezes at 78.50C.

Even cooking and boiler heating is difficult at Vostok. Because of the altitude, water boils at 860 not 1000. To boil Potatoes would take about 3 hours and up to 14 hours to boil Peas and Beans. Imagine 3 hours for Bangers and Mash and another 14 for your veg!

Vostok can be a difficult place with frequent strong winds and 80 days of total darkness in winter. Even when the station is heated year round with electricity the cold can cause researchers to suffer from Headaches, eye twitches, ear pain, nosebleeds, perceived suffocation, sudden rises in blood pressure, loss of sleep, reduced appetite, vomiting, muscle pain, arthritis and weight loss. So, when in April 1982 a fire destroyed the stations power plant, the researchers were plunged into extreme danger. One man died from the initial fire and for the next eight months till late November the other 20 researchers crowded into one hut, their only heat coming from candle-like warmers, made by twisting asbestos fibres into wicks and dipping them in diesel fuel.

They remained like this for 8 months, declining help as a rescue attempt may have endangered others during the long Polar Winter. Most remarkably they continued working during the winter months, taking measurements of the night sky, drilling Ice Cores, and recording weather information – while here in England we complain when it snows for more than a day.

While Vostok remains small with 30 people inhabiting in summer and around 15 in Winter, another Antarctic base McMurdo houses 1,000 researchers and support staff over Summer and 100 over Winter. In winter temperatures regularly drop below -30 oC and in the summer months, though temperatures reach 4oC it’s still heating season.
There are about 50 buildings at McMurdo, all heated with jet fuel. There are several unique heating challenges in Antarctica. One, of course, is the extremely cold temperatures. Another challenge is the wind. A barometric damper on a flue is designed for normal conditions in the United Kingdom. In Antarctica, there are days when the wind blows at 40 to 50 mph with gusts up to 70 mph or greater. That plays havoc with the flue draft. The flame can be “pulled” away from the burner. Once the flame goes out, the building cools rapidly. As a solution, when the temperature drops in an office building or unoccupied science building during the night, an alarm calls the maintenance mechanic.

Back in the 1990s there were about 25 boilers at McMurdo made by five or six different manufacturers — Kewanee, York-Shipley, Bryan, Cleaver-Brooks and HydroTherm. Since then, 14 of these boilers have been replaced and new boilers were installed in three new buildings. The new boilers are all separate and made by just a couple of manufacturers.

There are several advantages to using these boilers: With one, two, three or four separate boilers in a building, the more than 60° variation in outside temperature can be tackled by using only some or all of the boilers. Also, breakdowns occur more frequently when it’s very cold. So the buildings can continue to be heated by some boilers while others are being repaired.
Annual maintenance and cleaning are done in the summer, but there is never a time when heating is not needed. So with separate boilers, maintenance and cleaning can be done simultaneously.
Another major challenge at the McMurdo Station is ordering replacement parts. The supply ship comes just once a year - in February, after the ice breaks. That means the order cycle for parts is more than a year.
So next time you use our 24 hour call out service or purchase a new boiler that’s installed the next day by our Guaranteed Gas Certified Engineers - spare a thought for the Women and Men of Antarctica who can’t pick up the phone and simply call Commercial and Domestic Boiler repairs on 0207 244 8882.