Carolyn N. Kinder
The Energy Center for Biosphere 2 is a two story building made up of a series of opaque vault structures similar to those glassed vaults that enclose the agriculture unit of Biosphere.
The Energy Center produces the hot and cold water for heating and cooling, which is accomplished by piping of hot and cold water into the Biosphere 2 to the airhandlers, which would cycle air as needed to cool or warm it. Those waters and the inside of the pipes carrying them are outside of Biosphere 2, permit changes of heat playing a part in Biosphere 2’s energetic openness.
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With a complete power failure in summer, the greenhouse effect could quickly shoot the temperature inside to uninhabitable extremes. If it’s one hundred (100) degrees Fahrenheit outside, in less than an hour it could go up to one hundred and thirty (130), forty (40), or even one hundred and fifty (150) degrees Fahrenheit inside. Plants could die. The heat would force Biosphere 2 crew to break closure and get the animals and themselves out as fast as possible. To prevent power loss, the Energy Center has three generators. The total capacity is about 5.5 megawatts, but Biosphere 2 could probably operate adequately on only a third of that. It would take four separate and simultaneous failures and all three generators plus the power utility for Biosphere 2 to completely lose its electricity.