Do you think that a Habitat will have a charge for ridding the waste
heat created by residents?

Will they charge a surtax on electrical appliances? Will they charge
a surtax on your electricity usage? Or will they not attempt to
regulate this at all and provide the facilities as part of your
general taxes?

What if people don't care how much waste heat they generate because
they don't pay directly for the removal mechanisms? This would treat
waste heat as an economic externality. Think of greenhouse gases
here on Earth.

What, if anything, should be done?

TangoMan

Would it be safe to assume that air would be the
method of transferrring this heat (think airflow). If
so I would be passing it through filtration systems
and adjusting the composition to maintain a balance.
It would make sense to me to chill it at bit. The
price would be factored into the power used.

- Thor

Do you think that a Habitat will have a charge for
ridding the waste
heat created by residents?

Will they charge a surtax on electrical appliances?
Will they charge a surtax on your electricity usage?
Or will they not attempt to regulate this at all and
provide the facilities as part of your
general taxes?

What if people don't care how much waste heat they
generate because they don't pay directly for the
removal mechanisms? This would treat
waste heat as an economic externality. Think of
greenhouse gases here on Earth.

What, if anything, should be done?

TangoMan

> Do you think that a Habitat will have a charge for ridding the waste
> heat created by residents?

Dr. O'Neill's Island One design had an area of about 66 square meters per inhabitant, though some of this was windows. So let's say that a space habitat will have at least fifty square meters of land area per inhabitant.
The insolation will probably be about 800 watts per square meter in daytime, implying about 400 watts per square meter in average during a day and night. That is 20 kW of solar energy per person - or more, in habitats with a smaller population density.
The waste heat created by the residents will probably largely be that of electricity usage - cooking, lighting, various appliances such as computers and stereos, washing machines and dishwashers, perhaps electrical vehicles. If the habitat is run with a subtropical climate, tailored to the greatest comfort possible for most people, then fairly little energy will be spent on heating or airconditioning.
Does a three-person home use electricity at a rate that approaches sixty kilowatts, excepting heating and air conditioning? If not, then the waste heat created by residents will be small compared to that created by the sunlight.
Energy for industries are another matter entirely. But they will mostly be located outside the habitat proper, and will have their own waste heat disposal systems. It may well be that industries hook up both to a common power grid and a common waste heat disposal grid, paying for both, finding this cheaper than having their own independent systems.

Jon Lennart Beck.