Bingley No2 WMO 03344 – How hot is it? Oh, over 3 metres.

53.81142 -1.86675 Met Office assessed CIMO Class 4 Installed 1/1/1972

The above image is of Bradford West electricity substation, one of the UKs largest. From the National Grid Incoming 400kV transmission line it transforms down to supply three separate 275kV lines and four separate 132kV lines into the District Network. Schematically it looks like this plan below courtesy of Open Infrastructure.

Those small circles (ten of them) are transformers which create such large amounts of waste heat that consideration is being given to utilise them to power district heating systems.

Considering the very large capital expenditure a district heating system entails and the long term nature of both construction and ongoing use, there has to be a major amount of energy available to make a scheme economically viable. The Building Research Establishment offers a useful table giving heat loss estimates per type and age of housing stock.

SSE in their article above estimates their typical District heating systems supply around 600 homes. The arithmetic suggests about 5MW of waste heat would be required from a large substation to meet their basic requirements. To use modern BBC journalist comparison metrics (London buses, size of Wales etc) 5MW is about the combined output of one thousand medium sized wood burning stoves.

Large transformers are estimated to lose about 0.5% of energy as waste heat in operation. Simply multiplying that waste heat requirement by 200 (to represent 0.5% of load) derives 1GW of power flow through the transformers i.e. a typical load at a sub station. The numbers clearly stack up on the availability side – SSE knows what they are doing.

So why discuss all this……..oh I forgot to mention the red kite in the headline image is Bingley no 2 weather station – and no, it is not a photo-shop.

Having reviewed Amersham Field Centre in the past I decided to put it to the Met Office whether or not they actually took into consideration such major heat sources when locating weather stations, after all the substations predated them rather like airports predated them. Below is the full text of my email enquiry:

“Both the Amersham Field Centre and Bingley no 2 weather stations are in extremely close proximity to major electricity sub stations.

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/53%C2%B048’41.1%22N+1%C2%B052’00.4%22W/@53.8104747,-1.8674058,642m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d53.8114167!4d-1.8667778?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEwOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/51%C2%B039’52.6%22N+0%C2%B039’26.7%22W/@51.6647264,-0.6574057,169m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m4!3m3!8m2!3d51.6646111!4d-0.6574167?entry=ttu&g_ep=EgoyMDI1MDEwOC4wIKXMDSoASAFQAw%3D%3D

So great is the waste heat from large electricity transformers that serious consideration is being given to use them to supply heat for district heating systems covering literally hundreds of homes.

https://www.nationalgrid.com/industry-collaboration-turn-power-grid-transformers-heat-network-boilers-can-save-millions-tonnes

Can you advise if the Met Office has given any consideration to the effects on weather stations being so close to such powerful heat sources and how this may affect temperature readings.”

Their response was:

“Dear Mr Sanders, thank you for your enquiry.

With regard to CIMO guidance relating to all artificial heat sources, including electricity sub-stations. 

CIMO 4 for artificial heats sources is applicable when less than 30% of the surface cover within a 3 metre circle of the Stevenson Screen is due to artificial heat sources, reflective surfaces or expanses of water.

Bingley No2 is a CIMO4, due to projected shade as the primary cause. There are less than 30% coverage by artificial heat sources within 3m of the screen at this location.

The 3m circle is shown below:

I with regard to Amersham – see diagram with10m circle shown below. The Screen here is sufficiently far enough away to be classified as CIMO4 too, although projected shading from trees being one of the causes for the classification.

For CIMO3 or better, we look at the 10metre circle surface coverage, and less than 5% artificial heat source is permitted. CIMO 1 looks at the 100m circle, and CIMO2 looks at the 30m circle (for heat sources). These two sites would not meet CIMO 1 or 2 due to artificial heats sources and trees in the vicinity, causing projected shading at some times of day and year. 

Kind regards,

Weather Desk

So to summarise their response in concise and plain English – The Met Office takes no account whatsoever of the intensity of the heat source as long as it is more than a proscribed distance away. Perversely a minor amount of shading from a few trees much further away is a downgrading concern. You could not make it up.

Question, How hot is it?……Answer “more than 3 metres away” is neither a scientific answer nor is it any way acceptable. More to the point it demonstrates that BOTH data produced from such sites AND those tax payer funded bodies that produce it, are unfit for purpose.

Source: https://tallbloke.wordpress.com/2025/01/14/bingley-no2-wmo-03344-how-hot-is-it-oh-over-3-metres/